Secrets In Love
by KH Pwns My Soul
Summary: Full Summery In Profile! Chapter 9 Up! AkuRoku, Rikora, Past Roxamine, Zemyx and others later on. Roxas is looking for revenge, Axel is looking to get in Roxas's pants, Sora and Riku just want to find love.
1. In which the Beginning Ends

**Chapter One** –

In which the beginning ends

Disclaimer : I do not own any part of Kingdom Hearts/Chain of Memories/Or Kingdom Hearts 2 (tear) because if I had, the ending would have been sooo different!

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He couldn't help remember the wind on his face, or the rain washing away his tears. He looked at her body and knew he would get revenge, somehow. _Namine. . ._

* * *

Sora bounced up and down where he sat in his normal over exuberant fashion. It was Friday; **ice cream day!** The one day a week that Riku would meet up with him after class and they would walk down to Scoops, the resident ice cream parlor.

_Chocolate Tilt-A-Whirl or Raspberry Mushy Mushy?_ The internal war waged, as Sora waited for the bell to ring.

"_Chocolate!!" _Screamed his taste buds

"_Nono!! At least the Raspberry is better for you!" _Screamed his brain.

"_Chocolate!"_

"_Raspberry!"_

"_Chocolate!"_

"_RASPBERRY!!"_

"_CHOC-O-LATE!!!"_

**_Briiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnng. _**

The bell rang and Sora was off and running, the inner battle temporarily forgotten as he raced out the door.

* * *

Riku, with only his silver hair visible in the throng of students, could feel the impending doom upon him, before he saw the hurtling form.

"Sora NOOOO!!"

But it was too late. The small brunette was already nuzzling his check against Riku's chest, oblivious to the fact they were now both sprawled out on the floor; Sora's doing. Although he could hear the laughs of on-looking students, and feel a blush creeping up his cheeks, Riku couldn't help but wrap his arms around Sora and laugh too.

"Weirdo. Get up, or we won't ever get to Scoops." Riku mumbled into a mass of brunette spikes.

And with that Sora was up in a bound, pulling Riku along by the hand, calling back to Riku as he expertly wove through the crush.

"Riku, can I get two today?"

Riku chuckled, and couldn't resist the opening. "Why? It seems to me you've already got enough sugar in you for today."

Rising to the occasion, Sora took the bait as he glowered at Riku over his shoulder.

"Nuh uh! And the whole thing about sugar making you hyper is a total lie, _everybody _knows that!"

"Well then why don't you just go ask this Everybody to buy you an extra ice cream?"

"Rikuuuuuu!!"

Riku laughed, but Sora pouted, and that was the end of that battle.

"Ohh alright. . . you can get two. . ."

* * *

They sat in one of the deco booths at the Scoop. Sora happily munched on his second ice cream cone, as Riku sipped absentmindedly at his chocolate shake. He was having more fun watching Sora race the ice cream down the sides of the cone, getting more on his hands and face then anywhere else.

"You know, the object is to get the ice cream _in_ your mouth."

Sora glared and stuck his tongue out. "Oh be quiet!"

Riku grinned wolfishly "Although I _am,_ having more fun watching you lick your fingers."

Sora rolled his eyes, but a tell-tale blush and a slight smile soon had Riku winking and Sora laughing.

"Hey, did you hear about that new kid in town?" Riku asked.

Sora didn't find it at all odd that Riku was asking. It was a big deal for new people to have moved into Destiny Island. It was a small town, and like every other small town all of the inhabitants knew each other by name.

_Not to mention everyone knew your business almost before you did_, Sora thought ruefully.

His thoughts were broken, however, when his ice cream started to drip down his fingers and onto the table.

"A little, why?" Sora said hurriedly as he tried to lap up the liquidy goo.

"I don't know, people keep saying he's weird."

"I heard he's supposed to be really cute."

Riku's face lost all color, and Sora could almost see the steam coming out of his ears. Although Sora loved to torture Riku, he couldn't help the look of rejection on his face. So, leaning over the table, Sora bit and licked Riku's neck quick and then grinned, all teeth and silly face.

"Not as cute as _you_ though."

Pride and ego redeemed, Riku grabbed his neck in mock affliction and glared half-menacing across the table.

"Oooh, I'll get you later for this."

The look was lost when Riku wiggled his eyebrows and licked his lips, and dragged a decidedly pink Sora out of the ice cream parlor.

* * *

Roxas looked out the window of the new house. It was small, and quaint, and dark. He didn't really mind the size, or care what it looked like at all, but the dark he noticed. He felt it in his very being.

_And the loneliness. . . It's very lonely here. _

He nodded silently, agreeing with himself. The dark he could face. He'd once fought the darkness and won. But now he had no light, because she was gone.

Face bleak, Roxas turned away from the window to look at the big beg occupying most of the room. On it laid a suitcase, and he assumed he should unpack. Really, he didn't know how long he'd be here, but it hoped it wasn't that long. Though he had a bit of money from his previous- his _old_- life, and though things were cheap on Destiny Island, he couldn't stay here forever. No one could run from their past.

Laughing so hard he almost cried Roxas shook his head hard as if to clear it. He _wished_ he could run from his past, or at least pretend to. But he couldn't, and he'd tried.

Sure, to the outside world he looked like everybody else his age (which he really didn't know) but he wasn't. He had known and seen things that no one else had. Things that didn't make sense or that no one else seemed to notice. He had always had a feeling that things were not what they appeared. And then _she_ had come along, clearing out the cobwebs, and giving him light.

_Oh Namine. . ._

His heart clenched, and he refused to think any further. She was gone, and he had been spared, and that was that. Having found no reason why she had been taken and he had not, Roxas had then sworn to avenge her.

It hadn't taken him long to find out the identity of her murder. Or rather, murderers. They belonged to a notorious Organization XIII. At the time Roxas had smirked. To him it sounded more like a group of thugs than anything else. But the smirk had been almost literally wiped off his face as he had found out who they truly were. Member by rotten member, Roxas had fought his way through the world of secrets and lies surrounding the Organization.

Now the path of vengeance had brought him to this small town, where he would seek out a cast off of Organization XIII.

"Axel…The supposed master of fire."

To his own ears his voice sounded rusty. But he rarely used it these days, so he wasn't surprised. Saying the name again he rolled it around on his tongue, getting himself accustomed to it. Just saying it thrust his blood singing through his veins; he chalked it up to the chase, and finally being close to real answers.

He hoped the guy lived up to his name.

The guy in question was currently wolfing down hot dogs at a disgusting rate, chili and cheese all over his face. . .

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A/N: Yay, so first chapter of first fanfic is up! Please be kind and R&R! Chapter two is already in the making.

People who review get Raspberry Mushy Mushy!!


	2. In Which One Laughs And One Doesn't

**Miaibi1****: Thank you so much for the review: And yeah, most of my chapters will end with cliff-hangers. I'm horrid like that. But I always continue so never fear that I will leave someone hanging. Glad you liked it and hope you like the rest too! **

**Hands Raspberry Mushy Mushy  
**

**KajiMori****: YAY! First review ever! It made me smile a lot thanks. It's awesome that you like the story and I hope you continue to read!!**

**Hands over Raspberry Mushy Mushy**

**And for reviews we get an extra longer chapter yay! **

**Zess: I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts (1/ 1.5/ OR 2!) Nor do I own FF and all of its stuffy stuff! So no sue: Also! If you don't like Yaoi (boy love!) Then don't trip out and write nasty comments, just don't read :**

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**  
**

**Chapter Two-**

In which one laughs, and one doesn't

Axel clutched his stomach with both hands and groaned loudly. Oh man ohmanohmanohman, he thought, I should have never eaten that many chili dogs. . .

_Axel sighed, leaning against the counter of the small food-court. It was about two, and everywhere in the mall was slow. Because of this, his boss had forced him to go to lunch early. Axel watched the few customers wander around the mall while eating a pretzel obnoxiously, and with his mouth open. Bits of food spit in all directions and he grinned as people openly stared. It was bad enough his hair was so unorthodox, but he always liked to cause a scene as well._

"_So . . . the pig is eating again is he?" _

_The smooth voice caught Axel's attention immediately and he forced his biggest, stupidest looking smile in Kadaj's direction. Kadaj was the only person known to get the biggest rise out of Axel. He got along with most people, but not this one. _

"_Wrm, lurrrk mweos kere!" _

_Axel purposely laughed at his own almost-speech, spewing food onto his "nemesis." In reality he just thought Kadaj was a moron. Swallowing the last of the pretzel, Axel continued to smile sweetly._

"_Well, look who's here!" he said again. "And to what do I owe this occasion?"_

_Kadaj's per petulant frown deepened and he disdainfully flicked pieces of food off of his pristine white jacket. He stepped closer, getting right into Axel's face. _

"_You're going to regret that, faggot." _

_Axel laughed, save it to Kadaj to make sexual preference an issue. It was true, he was gay, but it wasn't a big deal to anyone anymore. Well, everyone except Kadaj. _

"_Faggot? What, unhappy I'm not into girls like you Dajy??"_

"_You'll pay for that Axel!!"_

_Their impending fight was interrupted by a booming voice over the loud-speakers. _

"_**LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!!!! WELCOME TO THE FIRST ANNUAL CHILI-DOG EATING CONEST! CAN YOU TAKE THE HEAT?? HURRY OVER TO THE FOOD COURT TO SIGN UP!!! ONLY TWO MINUTES LEFT!! AND DON'T FORGET PETE'S WEINERS ARE THE BEST AND THE BIGGEST!!!" **_

_Both heads turned toward the hot-dog stand, seeing the sign up sheet. _

"_HMPH!" They said simultaneously, and stalked over towards the counter. Axel slammed his hands down on the sign up table._

"_SIGN US UP!!" He yelled at the young lady behind the table. She looked a little nonplussed at the yelling, but she worked at the mall, and was used to Axel's random antics. _

"_Here're your badges, the table for the contestants is over there," she gestured over to a long folding table with a red covering on it. "Each of you needs to sit in front of a table setting, these are the rules and regulation forms please read these over and . . ."_

_She never had a chance as each fuming male ripped the sheets out of her hand, signed them, and stalked over to the table. Each sat on an opposite end, and glowered at the audience. _

_The large man named Pete waddled up to the table, microphone in hand, trade mark Stetson adorning his head. _

"_**ALRIGHT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN TIME IS UP!! GATHER 'ROUND, GATHER 'ROUND FOR THE VERY FIRST ANNUAL CHILI-DOG EATING CONTEST!!! HERE WE GO CONTESTANTS!! ON MY MARK YOU WILL CRAM AS MANY DELICIOUS PETEY-WEINERS FROM THE TUBS IN FRONT OF YOU INTO YOUR STOMACH AS YOU CAN! THE ONE TO EAT THE MOST IN TEN MINUTES WINS!! ON YOUR MARKS. . . GET SET. . . GO!!!!!"**_

_There were thirteen contestants in all, but none had their hearts in it as much as Axel and Kadaj, it was a personal vendetta for the both of them. Whoever won this contest, would be king. _

_After two minutes half of the contestants had dropped out moaning. After six minutes, only Kadaj and Axel remained, the others lying in a catatonic state, surrounded by bits of hotdog. _

_Each of the pair was pushing down hot dogs at a sure-to-be unhealthy rate. The only thing distinguishing each other was their hair, as each one was covered with chili and cheese._

_Faster, thought Axel, more and more and more!! Shoveling hotdogs I have to win, I just have to! I'll never live this down if I don't Shovels in more hotdogs Got to. . . I will. . . WIN!!! _

_After what had seemed like an eternity the time was up, and each one sank back in their chair. Axel was feeling nauseous and Kadaj looked a little green around the mouth. The judges came around, and inspected the mostly empty tubs. _

"**_WHOOO DOGGIES! (no pun intended ladies and gents) BUT WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!! AND TODAYS PRIZE FOR BEST WIENER EATER GOES TO…….ACEIL! BY ONE AND A HALF DOGS!! WAY TO GO PARTNER!"_**

_Axel wanted to jump up for joy and shove Kadaj's face in the bits of chili dog left, but he felt too sick to move. Kadaj's cronies Loz and Yazoo were already helping their ill leader away. As they passed Axel, Kadaj just sneered._

"_I should have known better that a fag like you could swallow more 'wieners' then me."_

_Axel groaned. Great, just great, I finally beat that asshole at something and it just makes it worse for me. . ._

_He didn't really care at the moment though, because he felt like a monster from hell was trying to claw its way onto earth threw his stomach. _

"Oooh," He wheezed as he wandered back to Frog Zombie, the store where he currently worked. His boss was waiting at the door. _She_ was actually more hard assed then most of the male bosses he'd ever had.

"What the hell happened to you? You look like . . . dirt." At a quick glance from a customer Tifa coughed discreetly and changed her wording. Another look at Axel and real concern showed on her face.

"Hey, you okay?"

Axel just shook his head, worried that if he opened his mouth more that words would spew out.

"God, after all I have to put up with from you. . . Go home scamp, beat it. And get well, you call in sick and I'll drag you from your house!

Axel was already retreating from Tifa's maniacal laughter following him and the shouts of "I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!!!"

* * *

Sora felt like his head was on fire. His limbs were numb and he couldn't money any more than a subtle rocking back and forth. He had only been brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed when it hit him. He could hear them again; their voices and their screams. He fell onto the floor, curling up on his knees and clutched his head.

_Why now? It's been so long. . . I thought I was getting better. . ._

Soon his conscious was trapped inside his head, caged by fear and regret.

_Make it stop . . . please make it stop. . . _

The searing fire moved from his head and into his body. Soon he was numb with pain, not even able to form thoughts. He was so overwhelmed.

_Make it stop . . . please make it stop. . ._

* * *

It was barely dark outside, but Riku was already down the hallway toward the front door, having watched the clock for the last half hour. It had been like this almost as long as Riku could remember. Sora's mom would leave for work at 7:00pm, graveyard shift. Riku would make his way over to Sora's house where he would spend the rest of the night. Only Sora knew, but Riku was terribly afraid of being alone, and these days, his house was always empty. His youngest-eldest brother had just gone off to college in a different town and his parents often went off to visit him, and Riku's other siblings. So, Riku would wander he four blocks in the dark to Sora's house. He crept quietly p the stairs and let himself I with his new Key. It was a present from Sora for their 1st anniversary.

"Don't worry Riku," Sora said excitedly. "No one will find out, plus, it's better than having to wait outside for me to open the door." Riku had been touched. In fact, just knowing he had someone who cared so much touched him to his soul.

Pushing open the door Riku quietly dropped his bag of extra clothes next to the door and moved towards the bedroom. It was when he noticed the lump-less bed that he realized something was wrong. Frantic, he searched the house until he heard a soft mewling sound coming from the upstairs bathroom. Quickly opening the door he saw Sora kneeling on the floor, clutching his head and crying.

"Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop." Sora whispered over and over. His eyes were opened wide, but were glazed and unseeing.

Riku dropped to his knees beside Sora and gathering the smaller brunette into his arms, cradling him against his chest, making soft soothing sounds. Riku rubbed Sora's back and kissed his forehead lightly. Slowly Sora calmed, his hearty sobs decreasing to small pathetic hiccups. He was, however, still clinging to Riku like a limpet to a ship.

Riku looked down at the body nestled tightly in his arms. Even though he was plying the comforting role, Riku himself was shaken. It had been almost six moths and Sora was still having these waking-dreams.

"So," he inquired softly. "Its happening again isn't it?"

Sora just nodded and held on tighter. Riku continued to rock back and forth, furious at the people that had hurt Sora, the people that had given him these horrible nightmares.

When Riku felt Sora's muscles relax, his body limp from sleep, Riku pulled the small brunette closer and carried him to the king sized bed. Stripping down he lay beside the boxer clad boy and cuddled close, and if willing his warmth to Sora, trying to burn away the pain.

* * *

Sora woke up groggy, which he wasn't used to. His normal routine was to bounce around his room to overtly loud music until Riku woke up, and then they would both head to school. But today he felt like a team of miners had hammered at him with pick-axes. When Sora tried to move and felt weighted down, and nearly groaned. It was then that he noticed the warm, and decidedly naked, body pressed against him. Before his cheeks could even begin to redden, that last night came flashing back.

_The waking-nightmares again. . . I thought I was better. . ._

He would have started to tremble again, if a muscular arm hadn't snaked around him and pulled Sora chest to chest with Riku, his nude chest, his nude body. It was then that the mother of all blushes lit up Sora's face. It wasn't as if he had never seen Riku without clothes on before, but they had never been intimate, and each time Sora saw him naked, he couldn't help but blush. That didn't mean that he wouldn't take advantage of the situation though!

* * *

Sora's POV

Moving back slightly and quietly, as not to disturb Riku from his slumber, I ran my hands up and down Riku's chest reveling in the taught muscles. My breath caught in my throat as my hands wandered on their own, moving to Riku's hips, and then down to stroke his outer thighs.

I can honestly say that my mind was blank for the first time in a while. . . Well, not quite blank the shouts _Oh my god he's gorgeous!!_ kept reverberating through my brain.

Biting my lip to keep a moan down I stared openly at the perfection of the human form lying before me. My eyes wandering to Riku's hair, tousled from sleep, leaving it in sexy disorganized spikes.

_Oooh. . . sexy. . . overload. . . must resist temptation!_

But my eyes kept traveling to his shoulders, lean and yet wide and protecting. From his shoulders my eyes drank in the sight of slightly tanned and toned arms, to flat soft belly. There was no chance of survival for me after that. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, the blood coursing through my veins and I knew that I would dissolve into unearthly matter. The last bit of my restraint perished and my hands and eyes strayed, wandering down.

_Nnnmmmmm. . . seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxyyyyyyyyyyyyy_ was all I could really think of. It just repeated itself mantra-style again and again in my over capacitated brain.

My fingers slowly followed the narrow line of hair from his belly button to. . .

I felt a rumbling against my hands and a kind of sleepy chuckle. Looking back up in surprise I met Riku's wide open and alert eyes. I had been wrong before, _now_ I had the mother of all blushes.

"Uh . . . um . . . I. . . G'morning Riku!" I was beet red, and stammering. But I tried to distract him by looking over my shoulder at the clock.

"Ohh look at the time! Riku we're almost late for school! We better get going!!"

His arms snaked around me again, pulling me tight against his body and laying a meltingly sweet kiss on my flushed cheeks.

"It's Saturday," he laughed and I couldn't help it. Tucking my head into his shoulder I hid my face and just laughed against him.

* * *

Riku's POV

There wasn't much chance for sleep, I just lay in bed, listening to the sounds of his breathing and stroking him back slowly, trying to quell the demons inside both of us. At some point I had moved us under the blankets and now I just stared out at the sky through Sora's window. Dawn had come, and the sun was starting to shine. It was peaceful outside, or so I thought. But there were so many secrets in this little town, so many skeletons in the closet, was anything as it appeared to be anymore?

I was moved from my brooding when Sora casually threw a leg out over my hip in sleep. This brought us painfully close and I groaned. Leave it to me to think perverted thoughts when I should be feeling protective.

_But I can't help it! _The evil, evil side of me said. _Just look at how hot he is. You can't say that you don't think he's hot 'cause I know you do! I'm your mind for goodness! It's all in here you know! You want to touch him. . . run your fingers through his soft hair. . . nibble on that sensitive place on his neck . . . caress him. . . tease him. . . you know you want to-_

_ENOUGH!! _

I shook my head and squirmed, trying to readjust and get comfortable. This was maddening! I thought I had had my overactive libido in control, but I guess not. Well, only around Sora. He could smile at me with that irresistible innocent smile and I turned to jelly inside. Hard jelly.

I groaned softly again and I couldn't help but pull him closer to me, even though it made it ten times more uncomfortable. It was just too much for me.

I heard his breath quicken and I stilled completely, closing my eyes in a quick attempt to fake sleep. I didn't want Sora to know I had almost pounced on him while he was asleep! I felt the small brunette pull away and I tried to relax, even though my body was screaming for Sora, and my mind. . . well, my mind was being as dirty as ever. But we had never really done anything more than touch and kiss, and I didn't want Sora to think I was some pervert. So I lay there, pretending my best to sleep when I was electrocuted.

Sora was awake!! And he was running his hands on my chest in sweet torture. I was all I could do not to move, or moan, or throw him down and take him then and there!

_Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! _

My breath sawed in and out, and I knew any second he would feel my heartbeat pounding through my chest, or notice my eyes screwed up tightly. I was biting my lip on the inside almost hard enough to bleed. He was sure to see that any second now. But his hands kept torturing my already fragile state. Moving and caressing me as I had so longed to do to him just a second ago.

_Taking off my clothes was a bad idea!! Or. . . the best idea I'd ever had!!!_

And then his hands started to move lower. . . onto my belly, stroking and swirling in exquisite pain/pleasure. I didn't know if I could take much more of this sweet punishment. And then his hands started to slide lower . . . and lower. I knew I couldn't let him touch me there! He'd find out how much awake I'd been!

_And you would pounce on him. _

Yes. And I would pounce him. I managed a shaky laugh, and opened my eyes, trying to look as if I had just woken up. I didn't quite manage it, but at least I didn't look as suspicious.

I found his eyes and they were quite surprised. In fact, now that I thought about it, I was a little surprised as well. My sweet and innocent Sora was torturing me while he thought I was asleep? This made my heartbeat pound anew and I almost felt relieved. I had always worried before that I would seem too forward, or vulgar. But. . . did he actually enjoy this more than just physically?

I knew if I kept along that road he'd end up ravished, but I couldn't contain a chuckle as he stammered and raked a hand through his cute spiked locks. It was what he always did when he was embarrassed.

"Uh . . . um . . . I. . . G'morning Riku!" he was red, defiantly red, and stuttering! But I tried to hide my glee. He had enjoyed it!

"Ohh look at the time! Riku we're almost late for school! We better get going!!" He looked over his shoulder at the clock and tried to jump out of bed.

It was too much for me, and I couldn't help but pull him closer. Luckily my raging hormones were now in check. His cheeks were so adorable when they were this red! I kissed him gently and laughed.

"It's Saturday," I said and he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. I kept laughing and he hid his face against my chest. I thought I had hurt his feelings when I felt his soft shoulders shake with mirth. I smiled.

_Yummy._

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**_A/N: _**Yeah, so this was mainly a filler chapter to introduce everybody completely. Kinda like a half chapter. I wanted to show a bit of everybody's problems before meeting them all up in the same place. Never fear! In the next chapter there will be all kinds of yummy boy-goodness and Roxas and Axel will finally meet! Yahay! As a kind of fyi, I will be skipping around from first person to third person in all of my chapters. But I promise to always label who's thinking what :

The next chapter _will _be posted by the end of this weekend at latest. Most likely by tomorrow night. :

Reviewers get a Axel-covered-in-chili plushie!!! 3


	3. In Which Meetings Occur

**KajiMori: Thanks again for the review! They brighten my day up considerably, and make me want to write more. :**

**Gives Axel-Plushie**

**Zess: I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts (1/ 1.5/ OR 2!) Nor do I own FF and all of its stuffy stuff! So no sue. But I do own this fanfic, please don't steal. Also! If you don't like Yaoi (boy love!) Then don't trip out and write nasty comments, just don't read.**

**OVER AND OUT AND ON WITH THE SHOW!**

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**Chapter Three –**

In Which Meetings Occur

It was today, the day that he had been waiting for a long time. Roxas stood in front of an antique mirror. It was floor length, and he watched his reflection as he straightened up his clothes. Well, strategically _un-straightening_ is more the term. His black button up shirt was purposefully one button off, and two buttons were left open from his throat, showing off quite a bit of his chest. The long black sleeves were buttoned together with silver tear cufflinks, a present to himself for what he had claimed as his birthday. A silk blue tie hang very loosely around his neck, the exact same color of his eyes, bringing out their vividness. Black jeans hug low around his hips, but remained tight against his thighs ending at blue trimmed black shoes. Running a quick hand through his hair to calm his nerves he took in a deep breath and then smirked.

_School? Who'd have thought I'd end up going to school. . ._

Picking up one lone notebook he walked out the door of his new house, and towards school, hope blooming in his chest. Axel would be there. He would find revenge.

* * *

He felt better, which was good because he'd have to pretend to anyways. Today was Monday, and it was almost time for school. That didn't really bother him, he'd skipped school many times, but he knew if he called in sick to Frog Zombie, then Tifa would have his head. He shuddered a little. Last time he had faked sick she had found out right away and dragged him to work, forced him to stand in front of the store in a Gothic Frog outfit and hand out flyers, all the while laughing in her insane maniacal way.

Rolling out of bed with a grunt he landed face first on his clothes ridden floor. Turning onto his back he grabbed the nearest pair of pants and pulled them on as he stood. Looking around for a shirt he reached for the closest one he could find, sniffed it, and pulled it on with a shrug. Like all of his clothes, these were too tight and too small, but he liked it that way. Grabbing some gel he managed to get his unruly crimson hair under a sort of control. Shaking his head like a dog his hair puffed out, and he slicked it into back-spikes.

He searched extra pairs of dirty pant pockets until he had found his car keys and then off he went, without any books or notebooks. What was the use? He was only planning on sleeping through all his classes anyways.

_Another day, damn. . . Just another boring day.  
_

* * *

Sora was back to his normal self by Monday morning, jumping around his extremely clean room as he got ready. His normal outfit had already been laid out the night before. A pair of baggy blue cargo shorts that were tight at the hips, overly large white shoes, and a blue and white tight t-shirt. Slipping his ensemble on, he grinned and crawled back onto bed with a mischievous look in his eye. He had already tried to wake up Riku twice this morning, and both attempts had failed, but this one wouldn't.

"Oooh Kairi, mmm that feels so good," Sora half moaned into Riku's ear. "But shhh, we don't want to wake up Riku! He'll never know!" He moaned again.

It was as comical as expected. Riku jumped out of bed and started growling before his eyes were even open.

"I'll kill her!" He was mumbling over and over again.

Sora laughed and quickly pounced Riku, suctioning himself to his boyfriend.

"Morning Riku!!!"

Riku grumbled and pinched Sora's fabulous ass.

"That's not funny Sora."

Sora pouted and looked shamefaced.

"Sorry. . ."

Riku laughed and kissed Sora on the cheek.

"Come on shorty, let go so I can get ready."

"Okay! I'll go make some breakfast!" And with that Sora was bouncing out of the room with too much enthusiasm.

Once Riku had showered and dressed, he met Sora downstairs where they ate a cold cereal breakfast. It wasn't that Sora hadn't wanted to cook something for Riku, but Riku was having none of that.

"Remember that time you tried to make spaghetti and you blew up the noodles?"

"Well how was I supposed to know you're not supposed to put noodles in the microwave?!"

Shaking his head, Riku helped clean up and then grabbed his book-bag. They started out the door and walked holding hands to school.

* * *

After walking the few blocks, Roxas eyed the school distastefully. It was true that he had never before attended school, but that didn't mean he had never had academic activity. His parents had died or abandoned him at an early age. Faced with starvation or death Roxas had been taken in by a man named Ansem. Ansem had taught the boy everything that he knew. All about sciences, math, even physical training. He would have men from other areas of expertise teach Roxas all that they knew, and then some. Roxas had thought that he loved the old man. He surely saw him as his only father-figure, even called him Father from time to time. Roxas felt like he had been saved by the most wonderful person in the world.

And then it had all come crashing down. Ansem had been lying. . .

Roxas shook his head and looked again at the drab painted building, with bits of graffiti adorning its sides. An ugly chain-link fence wrapped itself around campus grounds. This was not how he had pictured school to be. Roxas felt totally out of place, and began to have his first doubts.

_How could he be here? At this . . . this . . . place!?_

He felt like turning around, but he had come too far to turn back now. Besides, maybe it looked better from the inside?

It was true, in a way. At least on the inside you couldn't see the ugly painted walls because of the hundreds of silver lockers. You couldn't really see the lockers either thanks to the hordes of students traveling in every direction. For that matter, you couldn't hear anything.

"WHICH WAY'S THE OFFICE?" Roxas had to scream to be heard by a coyly dressed female, showing off more than she had.

"OVER THAT WAY!" She yelled back, gesturing with her hands as she tried to pose seductively.

Roxas left in the way she directed with a disgusted growl. No, this was not what he had been expecting at all. Everything was loud and outrageous at this school, and most people wore bright colors. Every where he went he caused a sort of uproar, from his hair and his dress. He noticed that he didn't look like any of these people either. His face was white, and un-tanned, where everyone here looked like they lived out in the sun. And it was hot. Hotter then he had ever felt in his life. He felt his shirt start to stick to his body as beads of sweat rolled down his back.

Finally he branched off from the fast paced human traffic and into the cool air of the office. He could hear a soft hum coming from the air conditioning vent over his head.

He sighed in relief at the welcome change.

A lady behind the counter looked up at him through thick glasses and pasted on a smile. It was clear though, that she was annoyed by the interruption.

"CanIhelpyou?" She said in a fake politeness.

"Uh yes, I'm a transfer and today is my first day, is there someone I'm supposed to see?"

"OhyoumustbeRoxasthen!" Her mood brightened a little as if she had just finished a terrible puzzle. This made his already suspicious nature even more so.

_Why does she care so much who I am? And why does she talk like that?_

The thought was carefully placed on the backburner for future investigation. At the moment he had to attend to the heaps of papers being distributed into his arms and the rapid fire pace of her speech.

"Myname'sJenna.Heresyourclassschedule itwilltellyouwhenandwhereyoushouldbeatanygiventime. Italsolistsyoursubjectsandthebooksyou'llneed. Heresapairofgymclothesforyoutousetoday. . .HoldononesecondwhileIgocallyourguide!"

By then he had tuned her out and just stood staring dumbly at the lady, moving his head up and down when she paused briefly as if to say "Sure, I understand!" She had already piled mountains of stuff into his arms so he could barely see her. It was true that he had paid for everything to be ready for him when he got to the school, but he had never imagined this much stuff!!

_Oh my god, what am I going to do? They expect me to carry all of this stuff around everywhere? I don't know what any of this stuff is! And that stupid schedule! It just looks like gibberish to me! _

Jenna then let out a little rush of air and Roxas looked up to see eyes just like his own. In fact, if the boy didn't have brown hair instead of blond, Roxas could have mistaken him for his own reflection.

And then the boy smiled widely and Roxas knew there were differences. He never smiled like that. He rarely smiled at all. It was much more his style to fight someone then to win them over with silly coyness.

"You called for me Ms. Jenna?"

"Sora! I'm so glad you're here, this is Roxas, and do you mind showing him around the school?" Sora nodded as Roxas stared dumbfounded. "He's new," Jenna added as an afterthought, as if it was necessary.

_Now, why did she speak like a roller coaster to me and sound like a human being to him?_

Roxas sighed; there was so much he didn't understand about this place.

_Today is going to be a long day. . ._

* * *

At his first look Sora was taken aback by Roxas's looks, so much like his own.

_We could be twins if one of us changed our hair! This'll be cool to be friends!_

Sora almost said that out-loud but he decided against it. Riku would have been proud. Instead Sora moved around the counter to stand in front of the other male.

"Hello! My name is Sora, and I'll help you get used to the school. Jenna says we have all the same classes so don't worry! I've been here since freshmen year and know just about everything there is to know about this place."

Sora then gave one of his winning smiles, but its effect was tarnished judging by the fact the other couldn't see him.

"Here, let me help you."

Roxas was glad to half much of the load taken off of his tired arms. He didn't smile but he nodded graciously.

"Thanks, my arms were killing me. So, they don't expect me to carry all of this around?"

Sora laughed and Roxas felt out of place again. Was Sora laughing at him?

"No, not at all, in fact why don't we head to your locker so we can dump all of this off? Then we should get to class since it started quite a while ago. Don't worry though, by now everyone's asleep and wont notice when we come in."

_Asleep? There's a sleeping class here?_ Roxas thought. He was feeling decidedly confused, but he followed Sora anyways.

Unlike before the halls were devoid of all life. Sora hummed quietly as he walked to the locker Roxas had been assigned to. Lucky for them both their lockers were quite close to each other, so tomorrow Roxas wouldn't get lost again. Stopping beside one grouping of silver lockers Sora smiled again.

"This is your locker! You can put everything in here, lots of it isn't used anyways. Most of the teachers just want you to bring a notebook . . . hey, is everything okay?"

Roxas looked up from putting stuff into the designated locker to find to large blue eyes peering at him. A lie was quick to his lips but for some reason, he decided not to. Maybe it was the way Sora was looking at him in genuine concern. That caught him off guard; it had been a long time since someone had cared about him.

"Yeah. . . I guess. It's just all kind of overwhelming. I've never been to school before."

"You've never been to school??" Roxas smiled slightly at the amazed look on Sora's face.

"Nope, I was uh. . . Home schooled for all of my life so far."

"Wow, neat! I wish I could be home schooled." Sora looked down in a sort of sad way. "But my parents are never home so it wouldn't work too much."

Roxas felt an instant connection to Sora then and there. They looked so much alike and Sora obviously knew the gut-wrenching feeling of wanting to be accepted by someone who was never around.

"It's okay." Roxas smiled as Sora looked up. "My parents are never around either."

Sora smiled and Roxas felt a little odd. He'd never had this sort of instant companionship before. But Sora just kept smiling and Roxas knew they would be _true_ friends. Sora's eyes were devoid of all pretenses, and it was obvious he didn't want anything from anyone but happiness.

Sora grabbed Roxas by the arm and grinned like an overzealous puppy.

"Come on, we better get to class! 1st period, Math!"

Roxas, feeling better now that he knew someone, felt even better. Math was a subject that he was very good at.

_Axel . . . You're here to find Axel, _his brain reminded him.

He nodded. He would, and then the endless nights of despair would be ended.

* * *

Roxas had been shocked to say the lease. It was their third class, but things had been the same in all of them. He was now sitting in the back row next to Sora who was snoring softly. It was like this with the rest of the class too. The ones that weren't asleep were playing with cell phones or mp3 players or talking to their neighbors. The teacher was talking softly to the chalkboard, oblivious to all the commotion going on behind him.

Roxas tried to pay attention for a few minutes and failed miserably. Soon he just gave up and slumped back into his chair.

_No wonder no one carries their books around. _

The bell rang and Roxas jumped up, not used to the screeching sound yet. Sora let out a sleepy yawn and automatically got up.

"Hey Sora, where next?"

At the question Sora seemed to loose sleepiness and look over to the wall with the clock on it. All at once the tired youth became a perky brunette.

"Lunch!! Hey, now you can meet Riku!"

"What's a rye-co?" The word sounded alien on his tongue.

Sora laughed and shook his spiky head.

"Nooo, Ree-Coo. He's my boyfriend."

"Your . . . boyfriend?"

Roxas must have looked shocked because Sora looked at him, a little worry line marring his forehead.

"Yeah. That doesn't . . . bother you does it?"

Roxas shook off his paralysis and grinned.

"No, not at all, you just took me by surprise."

Sora was visibly relived.

"Great then lets go!" Sora latched on to his arm as he had all day and dragged Roxas out the door of the class. Roxas resigned himself to his fate and tried to tuck his head down low, to avoid being beheaded by a poorly swung backpack as he was dragged along.

* * *

Sora and Roxas sat next to each other on the Quad, under a large tree. They were both just relaxing in the shade, pleasantly eating their food. Well, for Sora it was more like gobbling down. It was strange but after only a half a day they were already so in tuned with each other. Perhaps it was because Sora was always so open with his emotions and his ideas. Once Sora had learned that Roxas didn't care when he spoke his mind Sora had done it all the time. Roxas actually found it refreshing. He had dealt with too many people who lied and cheated, always trying to get something from you, or steal away your beliefs. Sora was honest, and that was something Roxas saw himself bonding to immediately.

Suddenly Sora was bouncing up and down in his seat, waving frantically at someone coming out of the cafeteria. Roxas looked up from his meal to see a silver haired teen walking towards them, a smile on his face, and waving back at Sora. Roxas was stunned.

_Wow . . . he's. . . He's what?_ Thought Roxas. _I'm not gay! . . . Right?  
_

* * *

Scanning the Quad, Riku spotted a buoyant brunette and smiled. Waving back and walking towards them it wasn't until he was a few feet away that Riku noticed a stranger sitting next to Sora.

_He must be the new kid!_

And Sora was sitting with him! The conversation from Scoops returned to Riku's mind and he felt a little put-out.

_What's Sora doing with him anyways?_

A pout on his face, which was very uncharacteristic, Riku stalked up to the pair and made a sound that was something akin to "Humph!"

Sora was oblivious to Riku's mood and stood quickly, twining his arms around Riku and nuzzling his head against his chest like a kitten begging for adoration. In reality, the metaphor wasn't that far off.

At Sora's touch Riku settled down, his unfounded jealousy forgotten. Actually, once Riku wrapped his arms around Sora, most everything was forgotten.

* * *

Roxas coughed discreetly, feeling a little uncomfortable. It was bad enough that he found himself having impure thoughts about a _boy_ but it was too much for him when that same boy was rubbing all over somebody else. It wasn't jealousy . . . just a slight feeling of voyeurism. Roxas shook his head and tried to look away, but he found he couldn't. Why was watching these two affecting him so? It wasn't like he _liked_ either two. In fact he hadn't liked anyone for a long time. No one since Namine at least.

_Namine. . . Axel! I'm here to find Axel!_

It was strange that he had almost forgotten. Coughing again, louder this time, he continued until he had caught the two lover's attention.

Both looked flustered and a little disoriented. Sora was the first to recover.

"Oh my gosh! I forgot! Riku, this is Roxas, Roxas this is Riku my boyfriend."

Riku looked up surprised.

"You told him we're together?"

Sora nodded and smiled. "It's okay! He said it doesn't bother him at all. We're friends now."

Something cracked inside of Roxas, and thawed.

_Friends? We are friends aren't we?_

Roxas couldn't help but smile towards Sora and then turned his attention back to Riku, who was giving him an odd look.

"Nice to meet you Riku."

"You also."

There was a bit of charged silence while Riku sat down and Roxas looked at his food, pushing it back and forth on his tray. They both then heard the Sora's chomping, making "Mrarwnwnmm" sounds as he ate with his mouth open.

"It's not going to run away!" Roxas and Riku said simultaneously and the ice was broken. They started talking, and learning about one another. Lunch was an hour long and Roxas watched the time dwindle, trying to find a way to work Axel into the conversation. A sudden movement caught his eye and he turned in time to see a fist connect painfully to jaw line. Normally, fights wouldn't bother him, but this one was unfair. There were three silver haired males against one strikingly red haired male.

Up in a heartbeat, his reflexes and an ingrained sense of gallantry had him running head first into the fight to defend the out-numbered party.

* * *

Axel sat alone as always at his small rounded table. Well, it wasn't his exactly, but he sat there every day and people respected that. He wasn't a loner by nature but his friends were all a year or more older than he was, and had graduated already. He was casually drawing graffiti into the metal surface of the table with pieces of spaghetti when he heard Kadaj's unavoidable snicker.

_Shit. . . I thought I wouldn't see him today._

"Well look here! The pansy is all alone again! What a shame. The poor _loser._"

Axel just sat, willing the asshole to disappear into the center of the Earth. Or maybe just anywhere else; he didn't feel like fighting today. But it wasn't to be. Lightning fact Kadaj's fist struck his face and Axel fell over backwards off of the bench in surprise.

He wasn't down long, his reaction time incredible as he jumped to his feet, his own fist slamming into Kadaj's abdomen. Twisting around the doubled over form he brought his elbow down hard on Kadaj's neck. Kadaj dropped to the floor, writhing in pain, but the fight was no where near over.

Kadaj's cronies, Yazoo and Loz came up at the run, Loz slamming himself into Axel with his entire body. Axel tried to dodge the oncoming attack but Loz's built up momentum and Axel's loose footing had them both sprawling onto the floor. And of course Yazoo was right there to grab Axel's arms and stretch them out above Axel's head while Loz straddled Axel's waist and began pounding his face into a pulp.

Axel tried to struggle free but he was pinned neatly and his expertise lay in surprise and his lissome maneuverability. He finally accepted his fate of being pulverized and just hoped they didn't break anything. And then suddenly there just wasn't any pain.

Axel opened the eye that wasn't swollen shut to see a blond haired dervish whirling and swinging and kicking the shit out of his three attackers. Suddenly Kadaj was on his feet again, and rushing at the blond boy. Axel shouted a warning but he needn't have bothered. The boy had turned around right as Kadaj had poised to ambush. Grabbing Kadaj by the throat the boy pulled the now sputtering face inches from his own and said something that Axel couldn't discern, and then tossed the walloped leader away.

Suddenly the blond face was right in front of his own and Axel was amazed to find that he was _cute._ Well, hot was more like the word. Despite his wounded state Axel had the time to give his rescuer the once-over. If his lip hadn't been split he would have wolf-whistled.

"Are you okay?" The sexy-face surrounded by blond spikes asked.

Axel nodded and was then helped to his feet, which was a little awkward because he was about a foot taller than the blond. After he was steady on his feet he nodded again, in gratitude.

"Why were they beating you up?"

Axel smirked and managed to say, even if it was a bit muffled by his swollen lip, "Because I'm gay."

* * *

Roxas tried to contain his rage from running back and pounding the three assholes again. He couldn't imagine someone dishing out such a brutal beating for something so trivial. He then whirled around as a thought struck him. They had hurt him because he was gay? Were there more of them? And most importantly would they hurt his new friends Sora and Riku?

But the formerly named were already rushing over, looking worried.

"Roxas!! Are you okay?"

He felt, if not saw the red-haired stranger look over at him and had the overwhelming urge to just go "Yes, I'm the new kid!" before the stranger asked, but he never did, and Roxas was grateful.

"Yeah I'm fine; they even get a punch in-oof!" Roxas had to plant his feet hard as Sora launched himself and tightened his arms around Roxas in a death grip. It was humbling to know he had such a good friend after such a short period and after so long of being alone.

"You alright Axel?" Riku was standing next to the red-haired

_WHAT?! No! It can't be. . ._

"You're Axel??" Roxas asked, incensed. It couldn't be him, not this guy, not this guy that was beat up so easily. Axel was supposed to be an amazing fighter, someone who had escaped the Organization and lived only because he had fought and disposed of all that had come after him. . . This must be the wrong guy.

Axel, or whoever he was, was currently leering at Roxas, one eyebrow raised.

"Yeah. . . I'm Axel, got it memorized?"

Roxas looked around the rest of the campus, surprisingly no one was paying any attention. It was almost time for classes, the first bell having rung a few minutes ago and people were wandering to class. There had to be some mistake, some other Axel here. . . but he hand a sinking suspicion that it wasn't the case.

"Oh God. . ." Roxas muttered, but he didn't know why. It was his theory after all, that God was playing a big joke on him for his life's entirety.

* * *

**  
Slang people might not be used to:** (Please forgive me if you knew, I'm in America-Land and I have no idea what's called what where. )

**Quad**: Also know as Quadrangle. Meaning a large courtyard or open space.

**Zess:** Poor Axel : And Oooh did Roxas admit he may be gay??

**A/N**: Yay another chapter done! I'm sorry to all the Kadaj/Yazoo/Loz fans; I had to have a bully somewhere! for this but the next chapter wont be up for a few days. I've got two big exams at school, along with a bunch of classes. X.x Silly College! Don't they know I have priorities?!?

But the next chapter will be up by next Friday at latest (3/23) and then chapter 5 will be up by that Sunday. I'm trying to get as many chapters in any time I can because the way this is going it's going to have many many chapters. Isn't that a good thing?

As always please Read & Review and I'll love you forever!


	4. In Which Roxas Goes Insane

**Chibi Neko Doll: Thanks so much for the review! Glad you like the story!**

**KajiMori: As always your reviews are appreciated!! Huggles**

**  
Zess: **This chapter is going to be very short, but I know how it feels to be a reader and have someone not update for like ever! So this is like a tide-over chapter until the weekend.

Oh yeah: And I don't own any part of KH but this fanfic and my copy of the game.sad ;;

* * *

**Chapter Four:**

**In Which Roxas Goes Insane And Questions Go Unanswered**

It had been two class periods since the fateful meeting at lunch, and Roxas still couldn't believe it. Not _this_ guy. It was just his luck that the both of them had all four after-lunch classes together, and Axel just kept proving how wrong all the rumors had been.

Once they had been introduced, Axel had followed Roxas around like a lost puppy after its master. It was bad enough to have a per petulant shadow, but this shadow had hands like an octopus and a leer. Not just **the look, **but this leer that clearly said "You're going to you're your back and BAM I'm going to molest you." Roxas had done everything in his power to lose Axel, but how far away could you run if your pursuer is in the same classes?! And of course, Sora and Riku found it hilarious. Sora already had a hunch that Roxas was at least Bi, and though Sora was hyper and usually air-headed, he was good at reading people. He had "gay-dar" as Riku called it. So the jokes kept coming, and they just kept laughing.

_But they would . . . they don't understand. . . I need t-_

"AHHH!! What the hell?!?!?"

Roxas had leapt from out of his chair, and was now standing on his desk, jumping up and down going "what the hell, what the hell was that?!!?!!"

"That" had ended up being Axel's hand. On Roxas's leg.

_ON MY FREAKING LEG!!_

Oblivious to the rest of the class, looking at Roxas as if he were insane, Roxas began growling and cursing in the few different languages that he knew.

"Sie Arschloch! How the hell could you do something like that¡Pervertido de mierda! Raak me niet ooit! Don't touch me!! DO YOU HEAR THAT??!? DON'T TOUCH ME EVERRR!!"

When Roxas paused for breath he finally noticed that the whole class, and the instructor, were staring at him mouths agape. Sora was looking up at him from the seat to Roxas's left and had a bunch of his sleeve stuffed into his mouth so he wouldn't laugh. Riku was absent from this class, as he had TA duty. And on top of that, Axel looked as innocent as always, and was peering at him with a sort of rejected look, as if to say "What did I do?" And then Axel had the gall to close his eyes, recline, and to all out toward appearances go to sleep.

This left Roxas fuming. He heard the instructors discreet "ahem" but he didn't care.

_You should care you know! _His rarely heard-from conscious piped in. _Your education is your future! _

_Don't listen to the sissy! Kill him! Just kill him right now! Blood Blood Blood!! _Stated the blood-thirsty side of him.

_No! We can't kill him yet. . . He has information. Oh he will pay . . . but not yet . . ._ That soft, scratchy voice came from his revenge side, the side that he had listened to for the past year.

Roxas stood on the table, head cocked to the side in indecision as the voices inside his head waged. The teacher had begun teaching again, and the shock of The New Kid ranting had worn off. Roxas however, found this hilarious as he looked around the room and noticed that no one cared any more that there was a gender confused psychopath standing on his desk while the rest of the class learned all about the human-body. Well, expect for Sora who was currently rolling on the floor laughing, his eyes streaming tears.

_Wait what? Gender confused?_

That thought almost brought him out of his wanting to murder Axel, but then. . .

_Blood Blood Blood!!_

And Roxas was launching himself at the green-eyed devil. Knocking him out of his chair Roxas straddled Axel's chest (his chest was the only place Roxas could straddle and still reach) and began to choke him with a type of crazy-man laugh.

Unfortunately for Roxas, Axel was a much better fighter than he had been able to show earlier in the cafeteria. It wasn't very hard for him to do it anyways, since Roxas was mind-blind with crazy. Picking up the small blond, who was still trying to choke him, he muttered an "I'll take care of him," winked, and walked out of the class.

"GET OFF ME, GET OFF ME!! LET GO YOU PERVERT!! YOU TOUCH ME AND I'LL RIP OFF YOUR FEET AND SHOVE THEM UP –"

Tired of the mirage on his character Axel pressed his lips to Roxas's in order to silence him. It worked too.

Roxas stared back at Axel incredulously, his hand moving to touch his lips. Suddenly reality fell, crashing down on him in fact and he was about to start screaming again.

"I'm sorry okay; I'll stop with the flirting just stop screaming jeese!"

"Stop screaming!? Why don't you keep your hands to your fucking self?"

"Hey! I said I'm sorry okay, got it memorized? Or do I have to repeat myself?"

"Sorry. . . Sorry isn't enough!"

And in that instant, it was all just too much for Roxas. He couldn't think, he couldn't breathe, and he couldn't keep the tears away. Everything was going horribly wrong, and he felt lost again. He dropped to the floor, curling into the fetal position and just cried, laying there in the center of the hallway.

* * *

**Axel's POV**

I snickered evilly as I sat down next to Roxas in our Anatomy class. I didn't know why but I just couldn't get enough of torturing my savior. It wasn't as if Roxas had some kind of personality changing affect on me, I had just found somebody to be myself around.

Ha-ha, my terribly perverted self!

It helped a lot that my savior was sexy. Ohh so sexy. His big light blue eyes hid mysteries and untold secrets. And passion, ooh yes, much passion. Roxas his it well, but I could see it when he was panting for breath after he had beaten the living crap out of Yazoo, Kadaj, and Loz.

I felt a little sheepish then, it wasn't very cool to know that my newest conquest had seen me getting my ass kicked. But no matter, I would have my Sexy Roxy.

And what better time to start then right now?

As I listened to the teacher drone on about the human brain I slowly slid my hand under the table as not to cause attraction, and then slowly . . . ever so slowly. . .

"AHHH!! What the hell?!?!?" Roxas screamed.

My heart fell for a moment until I noticed the tell-tale blush on Roxy's cheeks. That made all of the yelling that followed worth it. I leaned back in my chair; my fingers linked behind my head and grinned.

_He likes me. . ._

All of a sudden I felt something slam against me, and I fell back in my chair. It was a little disconcerting to feel how very light Roxas was, and how small. It was also a bit humbling. This shrimp was able to take on all three guys and I couldn't?

But I had other thoughts to think of at the moment, like the small hands that were currently cutting off my air supply. I easily picked up the small blond, cradling him in my arms even though he kicked and thrashed. I think I murmured something to the teacher as I took him out into the hall. I looked down at the small form in my arms, and was ignorant to all of his ranting. All I could really see was his lips, so lush, as they moved. He licked his mouth to moisten his lips and I couldn't help myself. Leaning down I pressed my lips to his in a soft, sweet kiss.

Pulling back I made a quirky smile even as my heart pounded overtime, and when I was about to say something witty, I looked at him, really looked at him for the first time all day. At his lost, furious look I started to feel a bit of regret. With all of my little pranks that I had pulled on the cute blond, I had forgotten that some people thought I went too far.

"I'm sorry okay; I'll stop with the flirting just stop screaming jeese!" I sighed and ruffled my already messy hair.

He looked at me eyes-wide. "Stop screaming!? Why don't you keep your hands to your fucking self?"

"Hey! I said I'm sorry okay, got it memorized? Or do I have to repeat myself?" That stung a little and I lashed back, my infamous temper on the rise.

"Sorry. . . Sorry isn't enough!" He whispered. I was about to storm off at the refusal when he collapsed . . . and started to cry.

He curled himself into a ball on the hard tile of the hallway and just cried, as if he hadn't in a long time. It pulled at all of my heartstrings, and I didn't take the time to examine why. I just quickly sat beside him and tried to run my hand along his back, trying to stem the tears in some way. But with each stroke of my hand he just retreated more and more inside himself. Finally I just dropped my hand and my head, looking lost. What could I do?

Calling his name over and over he just wouldn't answer. I wanted him to just stop crying! Feeling my own eyes moisten I stiffened. I didn't cry, not anymore. What was this boy doing to me?

The door to anatomy opened and another small boy walked out. Sora. His eyes fell on Roxas and immediately he fell to his knees, glaring at me over Roxas's body as he tried to pull the other boy close, as if I was the one to cause the problems!

I gave him a helpless look and motioned at Roxas. He seemed to soften slightly and I was grateful. I had never seen Sora angry and I didn't know the small boy could be so cold. I guess to him, friends were everything.

"What happened here Axel?"

"I don't know . . . he just . . . he just fell down and started crying. What can I do?" My own voice sounded disoriented, distant.

We both stopped speaking as Roxas began to speak, his voice so quiet we both had to strain to hear.

"They killed her, they killed Namine. She was the only person I had ever loved and they killed her. The organization. . ."

My blood froze cold in my skin. The Organization? I spent my life running from them, from their hate, and their rage that I had gone against their wishes. What did Roxas have to do with them?

"They killed her! They killed her and you know Axel, you know where they are! Why did it have to be you. I want revenge and now I will never find it. . ."

Roxas fell still and silent, his breath even now. He had worn himself out and into sleep.

"Axel, do you know what he was talking about?"

"I have no idea," I lied. "Maybe he's just stressed with it being his first day and the fight and all."

I could tell by Sora's eyes that he didn't believe me. But he didn't ask anything anymore. I lifted the sleeping body of Roxas into my arms again and took him to the infirmary, my thoughts clouded, Sora following slowly behind.

* * *

**Roxas' POV**

I awoke on a scratchy mat and looked around my surroundings. Sora, noticing my consciousness, smiled in relief and held my hand tightly.

"What happened?" I asked, a little out-of-sorts.

"I don't know, you just. . . fell? Axel and you were fighting and he said that you just kind of collapsed from the stress."

Some memories came back, and I felt anger stir in my veins.

"That jerk, he tried to molest me in class!"

Sora looked at me strangely, but he said nothing.

_What is he thinking?_

_And why do I remember. . . Telling Axel everything?_

* * *

**A/n: **Okay, told you the chapter would be uber-short, but like I said, I wanted to give my amazing absolutely awesome readers something. It's a little hurried, but everything will be explained in the next chapter and you'll get a regular long chapter again. My self imposed deadline is still in play, so another chapter will be up by Friday (3/23) night.

Like always please R&R!


	5. In Which Axel Escapes

I'd like to give special thanks to **KajiMori** and **Chibi** for the constant reviews that are completely awesome and make this writing so much more worth while!

Big glomps, hugs, love, and plushies for them yay!

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts (1/ 1.5/ OR 2!) Nor do I own FF, Axe, or any lyrics that I might add in here. So no sue. But I do own this fanfic, and Frog Zombie yay!

Also! If you don't like Yaoi (boy love!) Then don't trip out and write nasty comments, just don't read.

**Zess Will Now Update**: So today I wrote my chapter as promised. This might not really get posted until tomorrow, because dial-up internet is a bitch. Ha-ha. But, I actually have a copy of my plot-outline! Yay! This means that I will have no more filler chapters, or introductions-to chapters. Plot from here on out! Isn't that good? (Well, except for the fact that this is a total get-to-the-plot chapter, but then yay for plot!)

It also turns out to be about 20 chapters long. Some of the later chapters will end up being much much longer then the rest because there is so much to put in them (I'm saying 8,000-10,000 words. The summery I've created for one chapter is almost 1800 words on its own, ahh!). If people would rather that I posted them maybe twice a day in smaller measures then please feel free to tell me. Actually if you have any criticism at all feel free, as long as it's helpful and not flaming. I.e. - "I think that you should make Sora a little less of an airhead and more of a real-character in this plot" **NOT** "You totally ruined Sora in this story! Waaa!" You are allowed to have any opinion on my story that you want, just if you're going to say something about it, make it something I can work with so everything will end up good. Yay!

Um . . . anything else? Oh yes! This chapter is very serious and brooding and full of angst but it gets humorous again in the next chapter, and then kind of leap-frogs back into angst and the humor and then both and yadda yadda. Just don't freak out and think this is going to be a totally humorless story from now on, because it's truly not. And I'm sorry, but there will be no lemony-yummy action in this chapter. Actually, there will be nothing but Axel in this chapter. But you know you like Axel! And if you don't, more for me!

**Axel:** Ahh! Save me from scary stalking fan girl!!

**Zess:** Bwahaha!

**Chapter keys:**

This type means normal narration

_This type means flashback narration_

And now that I've typed a whole bunch about nothing, let's get on with the chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 5-**

**In Which Axel Escapes**

**Axel's POV**

I sat in an uncomfortable metal chair behind Frog Zombie's clerk counter. Casually I flipped through an old magazine, but if anyone asked me what it was about I couldn't really tell them. This was mainly because I wasn't reading it at all, just kind of flipping the glossy pages back and forth with my fingers, occasionally glancing at the pictures, but not even really registering what they were. A customer came up to the counter and I stood; now looming over the emo-looking guy. Well, it wasn't like I was one to judge. I looked pretty damn emo today myself. But this had more to do with my actual emotions then it had to do with my outfit. Since the scene in the hallway two days ago I hadn't been to school, or eaten much, or slept at all.

Completely ignoring the fact that he was trying to make conversation with me, I began ringing up his items.

"That will be twenty two-fifty including tax," I said in a voice devoid of well, anything at all.

The customer looked a little put-out and it was then that I realized that he had actually been trying to flirt with me. Inspecting more closely I had to admit that he was pretty cute. But his eyes were brown, not the wide blue eyes that held so much depth, so I felt like I was drowning. His skin was tan, not the soft white, and he was barely an inch shorter, instead of almost a foot. I couldn't rest my chin on this customer's head as I could Roxas'.

"Oh…" the customer said, and then handed me two twenties. He tried to strike up a conversation again but I just handed him his change.

"Here's seventeen-fifty, thank you for shopping at Frog Zombie, please come again."

He shook his head, looking at me strangely, and then leaving in a rush. I didn't really mind, since I didn't care at all. He had in no way compared to Roxas.

My heart clenched unbearably and I cursed under my breath. I had been successful for almost ten hours of not saying his name. But then, I hadn't been able to get him out of my head for more than a moment. Everything reminded me of him. Blondes, a soft voice, and his scent of body spray. It was the devil incarnate that Frog Zombie was located right next to an Axe body spray and accessories store, so every time I walked out the door I could smell him.

Sighing I sat back down in my chair. It was my lunch time now but I didn't really feel like going on lunch. Plus, Tifa wasn't around, so it wasn't like I could leave anyways. That wasn't really true, she was just in the back, and I would no doubt pass her on my way to the time clock, but like I said, I didn't feel like going anywhere.

Looking at my cell phone longingly it was a little childish to expect a phone call from Roxas, confessing his undying love for a number of reasons. The most practical one being that he didn't have my cell phone number, the next being that he probably hated me now, another that I had only really just met him.

But in all of our shared classes, I had learned a lot about Roxas that had just added to my instant attraction, and draw. Not to mention what he had whisperingly confessed in the hallway. And then I was back to where I started, starring at the magazine. Flipping the pages back and forth as I wondered just what role Roxas played in the organization. How he was connected, and why he had been looking for me.

The organization. . . It's sure been a while since I had heard that term. And I'd been trying really hard to keep it that way. I withdrew inside myself as memories of the past flooded my brain.

* * *

(**Still Axel's POV)**

_It was so cold that night, my small clothes hugging tight to my shivering body. It was my Xth night out on the street, and I say X because I don't really know how long I had been wandering around on my own. At least two months I think, since my parents had left me. It hadn't been really dramatic, just one day I walked home from junior high school and they were just not there. The doors were locked, lights were out, and the car was gone. When I had peered through the windows I had found that all of the furniture was covered by big white sheets. At the time I hadn't know what was going on, so I had just curled up on the porch and waited for my parents to come home. But they never had. I found some solstice in school for a while, until the staff had found out that I was homeless, and had kicked me to the proverbial curb. I was too young to get a job, so I had no money for food, or for a place to stay. _

_Eventually I had found a sort of hide-away in an un-used tunnel under the park. It must have been a water-way, but it was old and rusting now. Beggars can't be choosers I thought ridiculously and laughed the sound echoing in pitiful little hiccups as I shivered harder. Suddenly I heard footsteps coming upon my almost-home and scooted back into the darkness of the tunnel, trying to hide myself from would be attackers. There wasn't much else I could do. I was only 11, had no weapons, and knew nothing of fighting. _

_Abruptly I was picked into the air, screaming wildly and thrashing about. I would not die now! Not without a fight! I kicked out at my assailant, my foot connecting with something squishy. I think it hurt my foot more than the goon though; he must have been made completely out of muscle! _

_Being carried out of the tunnel and into the light, I was met with two strange faces, one standing guard outside the water-way and the one holding me. The one holding me had an interesting shade of blue hair, which clashed quite remarkably with my own red hair. The other had black hair and looked older. _

"_Found him lurking in the tunnel Xaldin. What should we do?" _

_The Xaldin character had looked me over quiet thoroughly, and I feared for my life. Were these people going to kill me for mistakenly being in their tunnel?_

"_Let's take the boy to him."_

_**Him.** That sounded rather ominous. I struggled with all of my might, and managed to land on or two solid punches to my blue haired captor's face, but they just continued to take me to . . . wherever they were taking me. _

_Wherever ended up being at the feet of a silver haired man, looking not much older than his thirties. I was deposited in what appeared to be his study, and onto his carpet. He looked me over with cold assessing eyes, and I shivered involuntarily. He looked . . . evil? I shook my head and just watched him warily. What were they going to do with me?_

"_Found him in the tunnel, thought we would bring him to you."_

"_Yes. You are now dismissed." _

_His words dripped eyes, even though they sounded fluid and melodious. Even his tone couldn't hide his amazingly harsh personality._

"_Name."_

_He was boring holes into my head, as he stated the word. I assumed it was a question._

"_My . . . my name is Axel," I said and then added "sir" as an after thought._

"_Axel. You have two choices. You can die because you know too much, or you can join." _

_I stared at him open mouth. What? _

"_But, sir, I don't know any information."_

"_We are called Organization XIII; we are an underground organization, to unlock the secrets of the world, and dispose of anyone who stands in our way. We commit crimes, have no identities, and are untraceable."_

_I paled considerably. Now I knew far more than I ever wanted._

"_Now you know quite a bit. So choose."_

_What else could I do? _

"_Life."_

_The man with the silver hair nodded and pressed a small red button on his desk, which I assumed was a call button. Sure enough, my blue haired assailant came into the room. _

"_Xemnas?" the blue haired one asked, to the silver haired devil. _

"_Take him for training."_

_For the years that passed I learned all kinds of things. I was fed, clothed, and given a place to stay. The Organization taught me to fight, to steal, and how to flee. They used me for stealing information, and for fighting, but I didn't care. After that first day The Organization was all I was. I had even made some friends with the people that lived there. Life was pretty good, in a sort of unethical way. My humorous goofy nature developed, now that I was free to be my own person, and I was known as the joker, always. The most fun I had was playing pranks on all of the inhabitants of the large manor in which we all lived. I always heard rumors about just how dirty The Organization really got, but they kept me in a life of luxury, and my hands remained clean of blood, so I didn't care._

_Then one day I was asked into **his** study again. **Xemnas.** He still creeped the shit out of me. He was the leader of The Organization, and everyone did what he said. I had been there when someone had disobeyed his orders and then the next day she had just not been anywhere anymore. When I asked about her, everyone was very hushed and just said that she had been removed. That was the scariest thing I had ever heard. But what could I do? I would just end up removed like her if I said anything. _

_So I stepped into the study. It had been past four years since that fateful day. I was much taller now, and my bright red hair had grown into large pronounced spikes. I had also acquired two triangular tattoos under my eyes. Xaldin looked me over and nodded approvingly. _

"_You've grown into one of the best Axel." He stated in his normal clipped off cold way. _

"_Sir." I replied, in the normal fashion. _

_Not one to beat around the bush Xaldin stepped up in front of me, handing me a picture of a very pretty girl with long blond hair and a tentative smile. She was terribly skinny, and wore only a white sundress. I looked up at him with a cocky grin._

"_She's hot. What's my job boss? Want me to seduce her to get information?" I said, with a characteristic waggling of my eyebrows. It wasn't all that far fetched really. They had asked that of me before. _

"_We want you to kill her."_

_What??! But I knew better to shout like that at him. He could very easily kill me. So I just stared blankly at him. I couldn't refuse but didn't he know that I could never kill someone? I just . . . couldn't. _

"_Now go." He said, looking at me very closely. I tried to hide the revulsion, the terror. I seemed to do a satisfactory job, because he didn't kill me on the spot. I was able to walk out of the study still breathing. Heading quickly to my room quickly I didn't look anyone in the eye. I couldn't do it, I just couldn't. But if I didn't I would die. But if I did, I would be dead inside anyways. I threw myself on the bed and just shook; my nerves on overdrive. Taking in a few deep breaths I sat up. I had to get out of here. It didn't matter to me that no one had successfully escaped The Organization. I couldn't kill that girl. _

_The plan was simple, because when plans got complicated, things went wrong. I would leave the mansion to search for this girl, and then I would just never come back. Simple. I researched hard in those short periods, wracking my brain for places that I could go. I couldn't stay here that was for sure or anywhere around here. _

_Finally I chose a place called Destiny Island. It was on the other side of the world and The Organization had never had any cases there. It seemed to be a mostly deserted Island, save for one small town on its shore line. If anything I could just go hide in the uninhabited areas of the island. My mind made up I stuffed my overcoat with as many of my possessions as I could, filling a small tote bag that I always carried with me with two changes of clothes. It wasn't surprising when I found I had quite a chunk of change to take with me, seeing as The Organization paid you after each job, but you never really had to buy anything yourself. I put the money in a hidden lining I had sewn into my jacket. It wasn't a very good stitch job, but it served its purpose. I waited two days till I implemented my plan. _

_It was midday and I walked nonchalantly through the halls of the mansion toward the front doors. It would look a little suspicious if I stole away at night, or tried to sneak out the back doors, and I knew there were cameras everywhere. I passed a few people who asked where I was going and I calmly stated "new assignment." It was the customary reply, seeing as no one was supposed to tell anyone else what they were doing until the job was done. The Organization wasn't worried about leaks, just about people screwing up other's assignment. Everyone knew that if you leaked information you would die. Then again, everyone knew that if you tried to leave you would die. _

_I was out the door in the too-bright sunlight and my heart was pounding. I was outside, and almost in the clear, but what I was doing finally hit me. It was true that I could always turn around and just go back, but what awaited me there was worse than death, so I kept on going. _

_Right foot then left foot. Right foot then left foot. I continued down the sidewalk to the carport. Getting into my designated car I sat in the backseat. This was the hard part. _

"_To the Records building," I said to my driver. _

_He nodded and away we went. We ended up at Records and I casually walked inside. Here was where things got tricky. My driver would wait at Records until I came back outside. So I had to split quickly. I had already planned my route, but I was shaking with nervous energy and I was worried I would screw something up. I headed to the bathroom at the records building, and shut myself in a stall. Quickly I pulled out a pair of scissors I had stashed in my pocket and began cutting my hair over the toilet, long red locks falling into the clear water. I continued cutting until I was almost bald, the short hair I now had completely uneven. I then took out a small bottle of concealer and applied it liberally over my two tattoos. The next step was a set of colored contact lenses, turning my vibrant green eyes into dull brown ones. I surveyed my appearance in a small mirror that was placed above the toilet and I nodded, satisfied. I flushed the remnants of my hair, and changed clothes, from all black to tight faded jeans, tan tennis shoes instead of my normal converse, and a tan polo sweater-vest. To hide the last of my red hair I pulled on a tan and blue sideways cap, all the rage now a day with the preppy-people. I looked at the mirror again and saw someone else looking back at me. I hoped it looked as believable as I thought it did, because this was the only was I could make it. I flushed the toilet again to rid of the hair that might still remain, and then disconnected the toilet from the water-pipes coming from the wall. Flushing over and over until the tank behind the toilet was empty; I stuffed my old clothes into the now waterless porcelain and then returned the lid. Peeking out from the stall I found the coast to be clear. Finding the janitorial closet that was connected to the bathroom I found the "out of service" sign they hung on the doors of busted equipment. I put it on the stall that I had used, so no one would disturb the stall for a while, and took a deep breath. It was now or never. _

_Head up, chin up, as to avoid suspicion, I sailed out the door, my cell phone against my ear, chattering to a nonexistent friend. I unconsciously held my breath as he stood by the driver, hailing for a taxi. The driver didn't seem to notice. I whooshed out a sigh of relief as I entered the taxi and instructed him to the bus station in a prissy whiney voice. He nodded and away we went. The bus station was only about a ten minute drive, and I paid the taxi without truly showing him my face. Just because I was close, didn't mean I could get cocky. To get cocky was to get careless. _

_From the bus station I ditched the cell phone, and went on to the airport. I once again switched appearances, taking out the last change of clothes and turning into a very professional looking business man. Walking to the counter I paid quite a bit extra for my tickets so I could remain "Mr. Smith." _

_I don't think I really relaxed until the plane set down in Destiny Islands the next day._

* * *

(**Yep . . . Still Axel's POV)**

The sound of my stomach growling woke me from the terrible memories. I shook my head. It had been three years since my hectic flee from the Organization. Three years of running, and hiding. For almost a year I had been afraid to come out of the old apartment I had paid-in-full for, having my little old landlady buy me groceries. And I thought I had finally escaped them, and all of my thoughts of them. But then a blue eyed sex-god . . . Err . . . sexy-god (he really didn't seem all that experienced right?) had brought all of my emotional scabs back to the surface and picked them until they bled.

Another howling from the stomach-beast and I was calling a "taking lunch now!" towards the back of the store.

"Useless peon! You were supposed to take your lunch hours ago; just leave and don't come back. I don't want to fire you!"

I shrugged and punched out, heading towards the food court. I ordered a burger and fries from MickeyDonalds, and upon receiving my food, sat pondering my situation. Pondering was really not the word to describe it, I thought, as I savagely ripped into my food, as usual sending it flying in tiny pieces as I chewed hugely with my mouth open.

Who is Roxas really? What is he doing on Destiny Island? How is he connected to The Organization? How does he know that I was connected to The Organization?

I took another gigantic bite of my hamburger, finishing it off. Shoving a fistful of fries in my mouth I scowled at their remaining brethren.

"I need some answers," I said to them. It really turned out something like "Wherrmoh ommme anvers" but the fries didn't seem to mind. They just cowered in the brightly colored french-fry container. I nodded, as if they had answered me.

"You're right. I should just go ask him."

Throwing away my trash I nodded again now set in my direction. I was going to find Roxas and _make_ him answer my questions; with force if necessary.

He-he I thought in a very perverted sense. I quickened my pace as my mind played out all of the "forceful" and oh so necessary ways I could get him to tell me.

A/N: Poor Axel . . . SOBS!

So, now this chapter is done, I'm sorry. I know it was a little boring but it was needed! Needed I say! And I did get a little carried away with the flashback scene, but it was fun, and . . . uh . . . I'm the writer so I get to say what goes and what doesn't. Mwahahah! 0.o

Kidding. Anyways. . .

Please R&R like always, as they give me big smiles and motivation out the elbow. Chapter 6 will be up by Sunday (3/25) night. Oh, and from now on I'll be adding these preview things with the chapter name and number along with a teeny summary.

* * *

**Preview: Chapter 6 – In Which Bargains are Made**

Questions are answered and someone makes a promise. Will Roxas survive with his honor intact? Or even his virginity? And what ever happened to going to school?!?! Find out next time!! Hooray!


	6. In Which Bargains Are Made

**Secrets in Love**

**By Zess/KH PWNS MY SOUL**

**Chapter: **6/20

**Zess: ** Okay, new chappy! Woot. Like I said, now that I've got a plot line these chapters will be popping out like daisies! Yay for daisies! I'm hoping to have this entire story done by April 8th. But I don't know what kind of obstacles will be in my way. I will never abandon my awesome readers though! Never fear!

So, yeah, this chapter is longer as promised. Brownie points to myself!

Thanks again to all the people who read and reviewed, or for the people that just read it makes this such a better experience! Especially for my first fan-fiction. He-he.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts (1/ 1.5/ OR 2!) Nor do I own FF, its characters, or any lyrics that I might add in here. So no sue. But I do own this fanfic yay!

Also! I'd like to give a very big **_HAPPY BIRTHDAY_**! To frogfly. Yay! Happy birthday!!! How old are you now? Anyways, hope this chapter works as a birthday present.

* * *

**Chapter 6 –**

**In Which Bargains Are Made**

"I need some answers."

Axel waggled his head in an uncoordinated up and down motion. He would go to Roxas's house, and force the boy to give him answers. Of course, in his normal lewd fashion, he was very happy with the prospects of "forcing" answers from the boy.

He sauntered out one of the doors to the mall and was faced with his first dilemma.

_Oh shit! I don't know where he lives!!_

Axel stood on the sidewalk pouting; looking to the entire world like someone had just crushed his hopes and dreams.

_Awe, now I'm never going to get in his pants!_

Axel harrumphed and sat down rejected on the curb. With nothing better to do, besides sulk, he began listening in to the snippets of conversation that passed him by.

". . . And the baby was acting up again today; maybe we should take her to the doctor. . ."

"But _mom_, I'll be the only kid in school without one! Can you please get it for me? Please. . ."

"Yeah, the new kid lives there. It's weird because there aren't ever any cars parked in the driveway, I wonder where his. . ."

Ears perking at the last overheard information, Axel sprang up and nearly pounced on the teen-couple who were holding hands and walking from the mall. He recognized them from school sort of.

"Hey err . . . Tidally, what did you just say about the new kid?"

The teen looked nonplussed and then a bit offended. Squaring his shoulders he raised himself to his full height, which was taller than most but still shorter than Axel.

"The name is _Tidus_."

"Sorry, but, where did you say the new kid lived? I um, heard he was really weird!" Axel put on his best believe-me-please face. Tidus, it seems, wasn't the smartest bulb in the box, because he bought it.

"Yeah, he is really weird. I live a few blocks down from him on Oceanic Drive, and it's like no one is ever home. There are barely any lights on, never a car parked in the driveway. . . I mean come on! He's got to have parents or something right? You know, just the other day-"

"Hey, yeah yeah that's all well and good but, what number house? Do you know?"

Tidus just shrugged, "Yeah, its 1176 why-"

"Thank you, have to run bye!"

Tidus looked over at his date, Selphie, and shook his head. _What a weird guy. _

Axel ran through town, dodging pedestrians as he made his way through the streets. Oceanic Drive was on the other side of town. His heart was pounding, and his blood raced through his veins.

_I'm going to be in Roxas's home. His home which has his room. His room which has a bed. Roxas. Bed. Roxas. Bed. . . Oooh all the things I could do to him. _

Axel wiped the drool from his mouth and his mind was then clouded with other thoughts, with the questions that had still gone unanswered. That was the real reason that he was going to see Roxas. Not this irresistible pull he felt towards the younger male. Right?

He made it to 1176 Oceanic Way in record time. Axel stood panting in front of a white house that looked just like all the others on the street. The lights were all out and there was no car parked in the driveway, just as Trexie or whoever that guy was, had said. That did strike him as a little odd. Even though Roxas and he had shared the second block of classes together, he had been sure that Roxas was a grade lower than him. What would someone his age be living in a house without parents? How would he even be able to buy a house without someone who was legal and able to make a real signature on the documents? Everything that he learned about the boy just led to more and more questions.

_Well, the only way to find out is to ask. Knowing him though, he wont just be "oh sure, let me just answer all of your questions, no problem." I have to take him by surprise. _

So he marshaled up his courage and walked to the house's front door. The paint was a little worn, but other than that the house was nice. Axel stood on the front porch after ringing the bell. He hadn't heard any rumors that Roxas had gotten a job, and the gossip mongrels were usually right on the money in this town, so why wasn't he answering?

He heard feet shuffling on wood flooring and had the sudden overwhelming urge to leap behind the nearby bushes and just pretend he had never been here. But then he'd never get his answers. Or get to see Roxas's house. Or Roxas's room. Or Roxas's bed. Or be able to take him by surprise.

_Roxas. Bed . . . drools!_

So that was how Roxas found Axel, eyes unfocused, drool dripping down his face, making strange slurring noises.

"What are you doing here?"

That snapped Axel out of his daydream, where he had been currently pealing off Roxas's pants with his teeth. Mmm. But, again, back to reality. Why not, seeing as reality was better than his fantasy. His sexy-god was standing in front of him in lounging pants and a small shirt. Axel's heart did a little looped-d-loop and he felt the butterflies begin to cavort in his stomach. But this was no time to let his emotions rule the conversation. He wiped the drool off his chin nonchalantly and ran his fingers through his long red spikes.

"I wanted to ask how you knew about The Organization," he said, as he leaned up against Roxas's open doorjamb.

* * *

Roxas had been starring intently at the pizza container, trying to figure out how to cook said food in the microwave when he was interrupted by the annoying doorbell. He didn't really know who it could be, since no one knew where he lived. But it sparked his curiosity and he wandered towards the front door, his socks making quiet shhhing noises against the hardwood floor.

This house didn't have one of those peep-holes so he had to make do with just opening the front door. He was then faced with a mob of red hair, whose head it was connected to currently dripping saliva onto his porch floor.

"What are you doing here?" Roxas asked, but it sounded more curious than resentful as he had intended. His heart fluttered a little in his chest and he scowled. He did not like the way his entire being seemed to be against his lets-hate-axel campaign. Just seeing him made his knees a little weak. But weak knees were nothing compared to the stomach blow he felt next.

"I wanted to ask how you knew about The Organization," Axel said, as he leaned up against Roxas's open doorjamb, crossing his arms over his chest as if oblivious to the nature of his statement and it's affect on Roxas's nerves.

_What. The. Hell?!?! How, why, what? Does this mean I really did tell him everything that day? I . . . what's going on here? _

Axel smiled mentally as Roxas looked like a fish out of water.

_Ha-ha, _Axel thought, _now I've got you. _

But it wasn't going to be that easy. Roxas shoved all the questions in the back of his mind, when he saw the faint flicker of recognition in Axel's eyes. So Axel had wanted to throw him off balance had he? Well it would take quite a bit more than that. Roxas put on his most winning smile, even thought it was a little rusty since he hadn't used it in a while.

"Come on in, I was just making pizza. Do you know how to use a microwave? Because I sure can't!"

Roxas turned around and began back into his house, knowing that Axel would follow, and then he would get the answers out of him. Even if he did have to put up with Axel's constant harassment. He tried to ignore the fact that his own hips swayed more than usual.

_Wait, am I sauntering?_ Roxas thought. _What the hell is going on with me today! It's not like I want him to look at my butt! Gross! _

But his cheeks were red, so he escaped from his traitorous body into the kitchen, switching on the lights as he went.

Axel instantly knew that it would take more than just a little surprise to throw this one off balance. And he was also instantly wary. Roxas had done a complete about face in his attitude toward Axel, and Axel wasn't naïve enough to believe that Roxas had finally come around to realize just what an amazing guy he could be. As he was debating the prospects of following Roxas into the lion's den, his eyes fell upon Roxas's softly swaying hips and further to his gorgeous tight. . . After that all was lost and Axel was following like a duckling to their mother.

Entering the house Axel quietly shut the door behind him, looking around at the surroundings. The house was almost completely empty, save for a few boxes scattered here and there. It was true, that Roxas and whoever else lived with Roxas had only been here for a few weeks, but surely there would at least be a coffee table or a sofa. Or a lamp somewhere. But there wasn't. Axel began to wonder if Roxas really did live alone.

He followed the sounds of Roxas's footsteps and found the younger boy in the kitchen. It looked much more used that then other rooms he had seen.

Roxas looked up from the pizza box again, his eyebrow furrowed. Axel quickly took in the scene. Defrosting pizza, open microwave.

"Were you serious, you really don't know how to use a microwave?"

Roxas scowled. Just who did Axel think he was?

"No, I really don't know how to use a microwave."

Axel grinned broadly, much to Roxas's chagrin and swept up the thawing pizza, placing it neatly on the rotating microwave dish. His long pianist fingers deftly pressed the beeping buttons, and the microwave came to life.

"Thanks," Roxas grumbled under his breath, but Axel still heard it and felt inanely pleased.

They sat in silence for a while, the only sound coming from the soft humming of the microwave. It was pleasant to just sit with Roxas, fulfilling much more than his wildest dreams. . . Well okay, maybe not his _wildest_ dreams, but definitely his more realistic ones. Axel hated to have to ruin it, but he needed answers.

Roxas looked up as Axel moved off of his chair and walked over towards him. He felt this insane giddy feeling as he wondered if Axel was going to kiss him again. But he didn't, moving only to open and close cupboards.

"Where are your plates?"

Plates? Shit! He didn't have any plates.

"Uh, they're still in boxes somewhere."

"Oh really? Well why don't I help you look for them?"

Axel put on a deviously helpful smile and Roxas felt his blood pounding. Axel couldn't find out that the boxes were empty! A show for anyone who might stop by. Everything that Roxas had brought with him was neatly put away in his room upstairs.

"Uh, why don't we just use paper towels? It could take forever to find those stupid plates!"

Roxas quickly jumped up and grabbed a roll of paper towels, laying some for him and some for axel on the island that they had been sitting around. Axel however, was feeling a bit of glee.

_So, he does live by himself. I wonder if there is even anything in those boxes. He sure is avoiding my eyes now. I should go for it._

And go for it he did.

"How can you afford this place all by yourself?"

Roxas would have dropped his plate had it been a plate and not a bunch of folded paper towels. As it was, the paper towels floated lazily to the floor.

_How could he know? Have I made it that obvious? And what is he getting at with all these questions?_

Trying to turn the tables Roxas quickly retaliated.

"You know, I've been thinking, your hair is quiet shocking. I think that I'm glad that I have a relatively normal hair color."

Axel's hurt pride kept him from noticing the warning flags going up behind his eyes.

"Why? I actually think it's quite fetching." He then posed to prove his point, and Roxas had to admit, he was hot like that. With his hands behind his head stretching out all of his muscles, and his pants riding low enough to see the top of his boxers. Whoa there buddy!

Roxas coughed and shook his head, and Axel grinned. He'd noticed Roxas's staring.

"Yeah, well, but it would be hard to hide it if you were trying to run away or something."

"Oh no, it was actually easy, I just cut my hair and put it un-"

Axel's face was positively white and Roxas gave an evil smile.

"Oh? And what, pray tell, were you running from?"

_How could I have been so stupid?! _Axel thought in a daze. _I am not going to let some little shrimp get the better of me though!_

"Oh it was nothing really," Axel said dismissively. "Nothing like forging legal documents in order to purchase property when you aren't of age. That's illegal I think."

"I did not! I had my friend sign the papers fo- shit."

They both stared across the island at one another, fuming. Roxas finally bowed his head, looking down at the tile on the island, tracing the caulking with his fingertips.

"What do you want?"

Axel felt a little brutish, but he didn't back down.

"Just answers."

Roxas looked up to meet Axel's eyes, once again startled by just how green they were. They both jumped a little as the microwave gave off a shrill "ding!" Roxas stared at the microwave as if it had grown a third arm. Or any arms for that matter, and had begun to wave said limbs around in a monster-like fashion. Axel looked away from studying Roxas's amazing profile to tend to the microwave, pulling the steaming pizza and dropping it onto the wooden lazy-Susan on the middle of the island.

Roxas looked back up to Axel, "If I give you answers, then I want answers too."

Axel was a little wary; he was still on the run after all. What if Roxas was a spy? That didn't make much sense, since he had already admitted to running away from something; Roxas didn't need much more information.

"Answers to what?" he asked cautiously.

"To my questions you dumb ass."

Axel rolled his eyes and Roxas waved at the pizza, trying to get it to cool down faster. His eyes focused on the steaming cheese goodness, Roxas whispered quietly.

"I want revenge on The Organization. I know you were once a part of it, which means you know where it is. I need that information. "

Axel was quiet speechless for a while and Roxas sat contemplating what he was going to do now. Maybe Axel wasn't much of a fighter, which means Roxas could ditch all thoughts of having an ally, but he could still have that information. That's all Roxas really needed.

Axel looked across at the golden haired angel and was quiet shocked to say the least. The vehemence that he had heard in those few words, the anguish, and the ferocity, it all sent him for a loop. But his brain was quick to recover and he began plotting.

_If I tell him this information, they could catch him, and he could tell them where I am. _Axel thought. He refused to admit that the main reason that he didn't want to tell Roxas was for fear of Roxas's own well being. He had seen first hand the violence of The Organization. What would they do if Roxas came storming in and demanding they all lie down and die for him? He had this crazy feeling that if Roxas left down this path he would never come back. How to stop Roxas?

_You could always force him to be your slave in return for the information, and then just order him to not go, _laughed the evil perverted side of him. Axel shook his head as Roxas grabbed a piece of the now warm pizza and chewed. Of course, Axel's eyes were instantly glued to Roxas's soft lips, his own lips remembering Roxas's taste. Maybe the slave idea isn't such a bad one. Brilliance struck and he smiled.

"I'll give you any information you want." Axel said quietly. Roxas looked up, the small bite of pizza slipping from his grasp and landing on the paper towel with a kerplop. He searched the older male's face and his eyes squinted into slits. He knew that look. He'd seen it on Axel when he had grabbed Roxas's leg in Anatomy. It was that "I'm planning something devious" look.

"What do you want in return?"

Axel looked affronted, but then grinned wolfishly.

"You."

Roxas jumped up onto his stool, quiet a feet seeing as the stool was almost chest high on Roxas, and was only about a foot in diameter.

"I AM NOT GOING TO SLEEP WITH YOU!" Roxas shouted at the shocked Axel, his face turning a red bright enough to rival a tomato. Roxas would never admit that his stomach had quivered his imagination on overdrive on just how much his body would love for axel to lay him down on his soft feathery comforter. . . STOP!

"I WILL NOT SLEEP WITH YOU!" He shouted again, even though Axel hadn't made a sound.

Axel shook off his paralysis and chuckled a little. He stood, so he was almost level with the boy standing on his stool. He looked up the few inches, something he wasn't used to, and smiled.

"I'm not asking you to sleep with me. Though I definitely wouldn't mind." He waggled his eyebrows and ended up with a piece of pizza in his face. He grimaced as he scrapped off the greasy cheese and then laughed as Roxas made cute grunting sounds.

"Then what do you want?" Roxas asked him, still standing on the stool. He liked this man-made height advantage he had on Axel.

Axel looked a little sheepish, and this just made Roxas all the more suspicious.

"I'm still not going to sleep with you, you know."

"I don't want you to sleep with me! Fuck! I just want you to date me."

"WHAT!?!?"

And then there was silence.

It had been three hours since Roxas's outburst. They had eventually moved to Roxas's bedroom. Well, Roxas had gone to his room, and Axel had followed. Roxas now lay on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Axel sat with his back against the wall; legs sprawled out in front of him. At least this room was lushly furnished. Axel ran his long fingers through the shag carpeting and sighed. It had been completely silent so far.

_It's not like I'm asking him to do anything! Just to date me. _Axel made a slight pouting face. _I'm not that bad. In fact, I'm good looking, kind, really good in bed. . ._

"Alright."

Roxas sighed at the very confused look that Axel gave him. He scowled at the red haired male.

"I said alright! Got it memorize?" Roxas gave a sorry imitation of Axel's choice phrase.

"It's memorized."

"Whatever."

_I need the information. I need the information. I need the information. _ Roxas kept up the mantra as he continued to stare forelornly at the ceiling. _The information is the only reason I'm doing this. I want revenge for Namine. I do NOT want to date Axel. I don't even know if I'm gay!! And I will NOT let anything happen between us!_

Axel thought that he would feel a bit better knowing that Roxas was now his boyfriend. Or, boyfriend in name. And that was kind of the problem. He'd found that he wanted Roxas to really like him. He couldn't explain this attraction but it was there so why fight it?

_Because he'll hit you with a blunt object until death if you try anything,_ the reasonable side of his brain pointed out. _Oh yeah. _

Roxas turned on his side to look over at the tall fiery haired male sitting on his shag carpet. Even though he would never admit it, his heart pounded a little faster when he thought about the current situation. He was Axel's boyfriend. Sort of. A small smile escaped his control and he sighed in an overly loud "let-me-get-your-attention" type of way.

Axel turned his head at the sound and found himself drowning in Roxas's blue eyes.

"Since this might take a while, I guess I won't hate you as much."

Axel laughed at Roxas's totally sour expression. "Alright."

Roxas scowled and threw a pillow at Axel. "You're supposed to say that you won't try anything stupid."

"But I never do anything stupid."

"You lecherous jerk!" Another pillow hit Axel squarely in the jaw and it was on.

Grabbing the pillow that Roxas had previously thrown Axel was on his feet in an instant and whacking the now pillow less Roxas mercilessly. Roxas was not about to lie down and surrender however. He launched himself at the string bean form that was Axel and pinned him to the ground, tickling him without clemency. Axel thrashed back and forth, laughing helplessly with Roxas laughing along with him.

Roxas's breath caught in his throat as his fingers skimmed the taught muscles of Axel's stomach, and chest. He bit his lip a little, his hands ceasing their endless torture. Axel opened his tear streaked eyes to look up at Roxas, and he smiled.

_So he does like me. . . at least physically. It's a start._

Rolling off of Axel, Roxas tried to ignore the tightening of his pants, and was semi-successful.

"Well, uh, now that we're um, dating, shouldn't I know more about you?"

Axel smiled lazily as he once again reclined against the wall.

"Sure, what would you like to know?"

"How'd you get caught up in The Organization anyways?"

Axel closed his eyes against the instant pain the memories brought.

"My parents abandoned me and The Organization kind of recruited me. They taught me how to fight and steal, but later on it was just too much for me and I had to get out."

Axel chose not to tell Roxas the real reason that he had left The Organization. He didn't want this fragile bond that was being made between himself and Roxas to be severed. He looked over at Roxas and saw the blond nod his head sympathetically.

"That sounds terribly familiar. My mom and dad died when I was really little. I wandered around the streets for a while and then this guy named Ansem took me in, feeding me lies. It wasn't until later that I learned that everything he had told me had been just a bunch of crap."

_Wow, his past is almost exactly like mine. Maybe that's why I so at ease around him. _Axel thought.

"Hey, Roxas?"

Roxas looked up to meet the tantalizing green eyes. It was really hard to focus on anything else but those eyes.

"Um, yeah?"

"As your master I command that you go to the movies with me tomorrow!"

Roxas growled. "You are so not my master."

Axel gave his best smile. Roxas already knew better to take that at its face value, no pun intended. Axel was too crafty.

"Well, if you don't want the information. . ."

"Fine, I'll go, but I am NOT calling you master."

Axel grinned and couldn't resist picking Roxas up and swinging him around a few times. He was really surprised when Roxas didn't start screaming. Wait; was he actually holding Axel back?

Axel set Roxas back onto his feet and Roxas looked up, a large smile on his face. When he let his guard down, he knew that he had never felt as happy as he did when he was with Axel. Not even with Namine.

Axel coughed so he didn't ravish the blue eyed sexy-god right then and there. It was really hard seeing as the way Roxas was looking at him, like he believed that Axel could do anything.

"So, uh, tomorrow? I'll come get you at noon?"

Roxas nodded, still smiling.

"Sounds good."

"Okay, well then, uh, I better get going."

"Okay."

And Axel groaned; he just couldn't take that look. That "I-think-your-wonderful" look. He pulled Roxas roughly against him and pressed his lips to Roxas's mouth. Roxas felt the butterflies the instant that Axel's skin came in contact with his own. He whimpered a little as he was overrun with sensations but he didn't push away this time.

It was Axel that dragged his lips away. He did not want this to turn into a make-out fest and scare Roxas away, not when he finally had him right where he wanted him!

"Goodnight!" Axel called his throat a little hoarse, trying to hide the large bulge in his pants.

"Night." Roxas called, still a little stunned from the kiss.

Axel practically ran down the stairs and out the door, his heart soaring.

Roxas was his.

_Only because you're holding him hostage._

"Oh shut up you!"

* * *

**A/N: **

Okay first off, terms people might not be used to:

**Island** (in kitchen terms): In America land an island is like a piece of the kitchen counter that isn't connected and sits in the very middle of the kitchen to act as a table, or another counter top surface, or an extra sink, or anything you want. Sometimes these things have wheels, but not in this story!

**Lazy-Susan: **a lazy-Susan is a round surface that is set on a spinning device so you can turn it. These are used in food related matters. At my house we have a lazy-Susan on our dining table that holds the napkins, salt and pepper, and utensils. It was basically designed for round tables so no one would have to reach very far for anything at all.

Yay, so I liked writing this chapter. The love is in the air Oooh ahh. I know it was only Axel/Roxas but next chapter there will be Sora/Riku I promise! Please read and review as always, as they rock my world.

**Preview: Chapter 7 – In Which Someone Gets the Wrong Idea**

What will happen when Roxas and Axel are secluded in a dark movie theatre? And what happens when Roxas finds out Axel has been keeping secrets from him? And who exactly did all those bad things to Sora?? Find out next time!


	7. In Which Someone Gets The Wrong Idea

A/N: Sorry this took so long, I've been battling a long ass cold these past two weeks. It's gross!! To make up for it I wrote an extra long chapter. This baby was 45 pages hand written! So you readers better feel loved because I was writing it while I was sick!

Um, I have a lot of character POV switching in this chapter (later on), because there's a lot of plot in this chapter that everyone needs to know about, and so you really need to be in everyone's head to understand. I just couldn't see third person giving enough detail to it so yeah, forgive me if you think it's switching too often.

Also, I think I put every character under the sun in this chapter. Please don't think names are just being thrown in, because everyone mentioned will be expanded in the next two chapters. :D

WARNING: Much citrus in this chapter. And, violence. If you are younger than 16 you probably shouldn't read it, because it's pretty explicit! (Don't worry, the scroll bar isn't age restricted. ) But don't worry, I'm not a tasteless writer! Also, if you don't like Slash/Yaoi/Boy Love don't flame, just don't read!

WARNING II: I've already warned you. You keep scrolling and it's your fault if you find something you didn't want. AGAIN IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS CHAPTER IS THE REASON (well one of) THAT IT'S RATED M!!

Disclaimer: The only things I own are this fanfic and my copy of the kh games. Sad.

This font: regular regy

_This font: flashback AND thoughts_

Frogfly: Glad that you liked it! Thank you again for reviewing it totally makes my day! And Woot for 14!

Chibi neko doll: Thanks again, yeah I loved this chapter too! I'm finally getting into the Axel/Roxas dynamics. Yay, because this chapter has a bit more of that.

KajiMori: Thanks for sticking with the story! Your reviews are always awesome!

* * *

**Chapter 7-**

**In Which Someone Gets the Wrong Idea**

Riku yawned and looked from the desk to the brunette softly snoring on the bed to the left of him. It was only 5:30am but Riku just couldn't sleep. He'd been thinking a lot lately, especially about Sora, well, only about Sora. They had shared many passionate kisses, but save the other nights tentative touching, nothing serious had gone on between them. The fact that he wasn't "getting any" as his friends said, didn't bother him. But he was beginning to wonder just how Sora felt about him. Now that he thought about it, they had never actually said the words "love" to each other. Riku had never really believed that love could exist in this day and age. His friends were all "thanks for the fuck, where'd you put my coat?" types, even the girls. His mother and father had always fought, and other than his grandparents, he had never seen a relationship last. And then he had met Sora, and had fallen head over heals for the small boy. He smiled when he remembered.

_Riku sat on the table outside the front of school. It was day one of his sophomore year, and he just couldn't wait to start school. Ha-ha, yeah right, can you detect the sarcasm? He leaned back and sighed. The bell hadn't even ringed yet and he was bored out of his mind. Two of his friends Kairi and Selphie sat gossiping about some sexcapade and were giggling like mad, but he tuned them out. _

_It was then that he looked up towards the building's front steps. A god with brown hair came walking down. Riku swore he heard the song "dying in your arms tonight" playing somewhere. Around the brunette's head glowed with heavenly godly goodness and Riku felt his head pound in his chest. In cartoon land his eyes would have fallen out of is head; his heart going "awooga awooga!" and then small fluttering cupids would appear and kill things with their arrows. _

_. . . And then said god fell down the stairs, cursing. _

"_Fuck! Damn! Shit! Bitch! Asshole!" **THUMP! "**Ahh!!" _

_The brunette lay sprawled out on his back, hands tightened into crab-claw shapes. _

"_Alright you freaks, I'm going to pinch who ever tripped me! Bwahaha!" _

_And he was up, in a fighters crouch, growling and hissing at passersby. His look clearly said "I'm skitzo! Don't make me eat you!" while his hands made pinching motions. For the first time in a while Riku had absolutely no idea what to do. His dreams of sexing up this beautiful god-creature shattered into a billion pieces. This kid was nuts! He tried to walk away from the crazy but resistance was futile, as he was soon informed. It didn't help much that Selphie and Kairi had disappeared._

"_Resistance is futile! I saw you trip me! Now I'm going to pinch you!"_

_As any sane person would be, Riku was frightened and angry. Who was psycho-boy to accuse him?_

"_Excuse me? It looked to me like you weren't smart enough to walk down the stairs and fell!"_

"_Ahh!" and then the brunette went running towards Riku, crab-claw-hands outstretched. Riku was a deer caught in the headlights. Who wouldn't be? But Riku was no pansy, so he crouched down, ready for the incoming attack! But the brunette had no planned strategy, he just barreled into Riku full force, and screaming. Once the brunette had Riku on the ground he straddled the other male and began chanting "purple nurple" and pinching his crab-claw-hands menacingly. Riku paled and shoved at the smaller boy. It was surprising when the brunette was easily pushed aside. The moment Riku touched the brunette he felt a weird jolt through his body. He shook his head to shake it off._

_The smaller male was now kneeling next to Riku, head tilted and looking **adorable.** He pointed to his own chest._

"_Sora. You sure you didn't trip me?"_

_Riku nodded. "Yeah I'm sure."_

_And then the brunette smiled hugely, his whole **being**__seemed to light up. _

"_Cool. Friends?"_

_Riku was forever lost in that smile._

"_Sure. Friends."_

Riku smiled again. It had only been two weeks after that that he had asked Sora to be his boyfriend. He couldn't help it. Every time he turned around something reminded him of Sora, and he always felt so much more alive when he was with the blue eyed brunette. He knew for a fact that he loved Sora, but he was scared. Truly scared. Did Sora love him back? He would rather be with a Sora that didn't love him, than without Sora at all. So he sat at the small writing desk in the dark and watched Sora sleep, worrying about the future.

* * *

"_Uh, hello?" Roxas answered his phone groggily. It was, after all, only four in the morning._

"_Hello!" Spouted a cheerful Axel._

"_A.k.a?" Roxas asked, a little out of sorts. Nestling the phone closer to his ear his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "How'd you get this number?"_

"_I stole it from your phone the other day." Axel said smugly. He paused for a moment, as if waiting for something._

"_Oh yeah, sure, uh, what do you want?" Roxas asked, still sleepy and confused._

"_I wanted to say I'm sorry for canceling."_

"_Canceling what?"_

"_Our movie date today. I can't make it 'because I have to work. How about Sunday?" _

"_Sure sure." Roxas mumbled into his pillow too tired to notice that Axel had called it a date._

"_Great! See you at school then!"_

_Click. . . Snore. . ._

That had been Thursday morning and it was now the beginning of Sunday. The first week of school was a distant memory to Roxas. It was surprising how easily he had fit into the mundane schedule, dozing off in all of his classes, elated with only lunch time. It did help that during lunch he got to see Axel. Come to think of it though, he hadn't seen him Thursday at all, and on Friday only for a moment. Axel seemed to have an affinity for ditching classes. When Roxas had asked Riku about it, since he seemed to be the only one who knew Axel out of the schools entirety, Riku just shrugged.

"_He's only got one class, and that's only on Mondays, so he doesn't always show up for school. They give him extra credit when he goes to other classes, but since all his friends have already graduated, he's not here a lot." _

That had made a sort of sense, but Roxas felt an unusual pang in his chest region.

_If Axel can go to any classes that he wanted to, how come he never goes to classes with me?_

In fact, when it came to his feelings for Axel, everything was muddled and new. At this point, Roxas just didn't understand his sexual orientation, or why whenever he saw Axel, people started shooting Chinese fireworks inside his heart. It wasn't as if Roxas was against being gay, he had just never known that he could feel this way towards anybody, let alone a guy.

Things were just too confusing for him right now. He was still plagued with dreams of Namine's death, the sight of her limp body cast aside without a care. But when his dreams were not haunted with her face, another ghoul came to keep him tossing and turning at night. Axel. Roxas couldn't figure out why he thought about the red-haired fire fiend day and night, but he just couldn't keep him from his thoughts.

He sighed as he moved to stand in front of his barren closet and then growled at all the clothes. Today was Dooms Day, as Roxas had begun to refer to it. In reality, he only called it that because he would never accept that he was really excited about spending time with Axel.

So here he stood, in front of his sparse closet, looking for something to wear. Nothing in there seemed to be right for the occasion. In fact, the whole occasion seemed completely un-right. Roxas had never been on a date before, and he had no idea what to wear, or what to do. It didn't help much that Axel had already called to reschedule twice, the day before yesterday and then yesterday again. Or that he was male.

_Jeeze, just relax. It's not like this is a real date, _side A of his mind reminded him.

_Who's to say that this isn't a real date?_ Argued side B. _Axel obviously likes us, and we obviously like him back. He asked us out. How much more realistic can you get?_

"Oh be quiet!" He muttered to himself.

He reached into the closet and pulled out a random shirt and an old pair of black cargo shorts. He sighed and shrugged into the clothes. Looking back at the mirror he realized he didn't look half bad in a normal t-shirt. It read "carpe diem, and then you die," in scrawled Old English on a dark blue background. Running a few fingers through his hair to try and organize his locks, he took a few deep breaths.

He tried not thinking anymore, because it was just too complicated. When he was with Axel, he felt alive again. But he couldn't just give up his revenge could he? He sighed. Great. Just when he had said he wouldn't think, of course he thought. The doorbell rang and Roxas took one more deep breath. Running down the stairs he made it to the front door before the fourth ring. Pulling at his hair he opened the door.

A goofy grinning Axel with a paper-flower stood on his doorstep.

"Why hello there slave."

Roxas growled. "I am _not_ your slave."

"Sure ya're, here, this is for you."

He held out the paper-rose and Roxas snatched it from his hand, making a humph sound. Even though he was rough with his acceptance, he made sure to be extra careful with the rose, his thumb running absentmindedly over the soft paper-petals. Nobody had ever brought him a gift before.

Axel noticed the gesture and blushed a little, insanely pleased. He had been worried about today too, his overactive imagination winding up with him in bed with Roxas making hot sticky-sweet love, or dead on some street corner somewhere. Axel ran a hand through his hair and coughed a little as he watched Roxas zone out, his fingers still caressing the paper-rose.

"Ahem, well, ah, uh, are you ready to go then?"

"Oh, what?" Roxas looked up a bit startled. "Oh! Yeah, just let me lock up."

Axel moved down three concrete stairs in order to allow Roxas to lock up. His eyes traveled up and down the boy in a hungry manner. He liked what Roxas's was wearing that's for sure. He wanted even more to see what Roxas would look like without all the clothes on. Really though, perverted ness aside, Axel was just glad that he'd get to spend this time with Roxas.

Roxas fumbled with the key, his hands shaking, and hoped that Axel didn't notice just how scared he was. Why was he scared anyways? He didn't . . . like Axel that way did he? Okay, sure, he would grudgingly admit that he maybe liked spending time with Axel and Axel was maybe just a tiny bit hot, but he didn't _like_ him did he? No, he couldn't fool himself anymore. He _did_ like Axel. He just . . . didn't want to be with him. Yeah! That's it!

_Denial . . ._ sighed side A.

_Yeah, kind of pathetic . . ._ said side B.

"Oh be quiet!" Roxas shouted.

". . . I didn't say anything."

"What?"

"You said be quiet, I said I didn't say anything. . . You know you should really clean the wax out of your ears. . ."

"Great, I like a guy that makes fun of me all the time. . ." Roxas muttered under his breath.

Unfortunately for Roxas, under his breath wasn't quite as quiet as he has believed it was.

Axel nearly had a heart attack when he heard. He turned his head to the side too fast, trying to look over at Roxas, and fell flat on his face on the cement sidewalk outside Roxas's house.

"Ow!" Axel screamed and whined as his face met the pavement.

Roxas scrambled over to Axel and knelt beside him.

"Axel, you okay?"

Axel cocked his head to the side, mid-yell. He looked into those enchanting blue eyes and like always his heart skipped a beat. Could Roxas really like him? He heard something in Roxas's voice that made Axel search his eyes deeper. But it was there, well and truly there. Concern. He . . . cared about Axel.

"Did you mean it?"

Roxas turned bright pink, even though he tried to feign innocence. "Mean what?"

"That you like me?"

Roxas tried to look everywhere but Axel, but his eyes betrayed him He met the older male's green eyes and was lost. He just stared for a few minutes, feeling the butterflies' riot in his stomach. When he looked at Axel this way, everything else melted into nothingness, and he could only say the truth.

"Yes," was all that Roxas could say.

Axel didn't know that he had been holding his breath. He felt his heart pound with that one syllable word. How could this boy, who he barely knew, mean so much to him already? But Axel couldn't deny the pull that his heart, body, and mind felt. It was there, and he had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't going away.

"I like you too Roxas, more than I've ever liked anybody, I think."

Roxas didn't know what to do, and neither did Axel. They just stared at each other. And then Axel ruined the moment.

"For such a short guy, who knew I'd be into you?"

Roxas decided that he would let that one slide, for now. It wasn't every day someone told him that they liked him. And for today, he was willing to forget the rest of the world, and know joy again. He stood and offered Axel his hand. Axel took it graciously, ignoring his body's response to the blue eyed blonde's touch. He would have him in a dark theatre soon enough. Until then, he didn't want to do anything to jeopardize this new and amazing feeling. He looked down at Roxas and a new light shone in his eyes, something akin to lust, but not quite as perverted. Roxas shivered anyways under the hot gaze.

"So," Axel said in a deep melodic voice. "To the movies?"

Roxas put his heart on the line and nodded. He was going to try living, and try to forget the darkness of the world at the same time.

"Yeah, let's go."

So Axel took his hand, causing them both to shiver this time, and they began to walk to the movie theatre.

* * *

Sora awoke to two eyes peering at him intently and jumped about five feet in the air. Or, rather, his heart did. When he calmed down and woke up enough to focus he found it was Riku staring at him so.

"Jeeze Riku! You scared me!"

Riku slowly focused on the real world. When he regained full consciousness he noticed that Sora was awake and looking as if he had seen a ghost.

"Sorry," Riku said, and ran a few fingers through his hair looking sheepish. "I was just thinking."

"Oh really?" The ever eager Sora was awake in full tilt now. "What about?"

Riku nearly fell out of his chair. He couldn't tell Sora what he was really thinking about!

Sora noticed his discomfort about the topic and grinned a sly smile.

"I'll get it out of you; don't force me to torture you!"

Riku couldn't suppress a groan and Sora took advantage of the opportunity.

"Ha-ha got you! Come on Riku, we're boyfriends right? You can tell me anything!"

Riku looked helplessly into those soft blue eyes and didn't know what else he could do. He couldn't find it in him to lie to Sora, not even to save himself the humiliation and possible loss. He looked down at his toes.

"I was thinking," he said hesitantly. "About, how much I love you."

Sora was shocked to say the least. Riku had never said the word love, in reality, neither of them had! This was definitely not what Sora had prepared himself for. He had been thinking it would be something dirty, even hoping. Ever since the touching-incident, as he had been prone to call it, Sora had found himself wanting more. But love? He felt a little nonplussed. What was he supposed to do? For once in his life he didn't rush into things blindly. So he sat on his bed, while Riku nervously twiddled his thumbs, and thought.

_He loves me? But, how? _

Sora had long given up hope that the words of love would be expressed between them. They had been together for a month when Sora realized how much he loved Riku. Well really Riku's sex crazed friend Kairi had pointed it out to him.

"_Hey Sora!" Kairi called to him._

_Sora gave a little wave and walked towards the girl._

"_So, what's up?"_

"_Oh not much, just a little sad I guess. Riku called in sick today."_

_Sora gave the saddest looking puppy-dog face that Kairi had ever seen, but she just laughed at his plight._

"_Why don't you just tell him you love him already? It'd probably make things easier for the both of you?" _

_Love? Riku? _

But she had been right. Sora did love Riku, with all of his being. But he had been too scared to tell Riku about it. Riku had so many friends that were just looking for sex in a relationship. It would be hard to be friends with people like that when if you didn't feel the same way about most things right? So he had vowed to wait and see if Riku ever said he felt the same way about Sora. And he had promised to himself that he and Riku wouldn't do anything sexual until he knew for sure that Riku loved him. He would not be used like that!

And as each month passed, keeping both of his vows had been harder and harder. Oh how he lusted after Riku, when they were both lying in bed he would struggle to hide his hard on, scared of what might happen if Riku noticed. And with each day that Riku didn't say he loved Sora, Sora got more and more heavy-hearted.

_But now, he says he loves me! Can . . . can it be true?_

"Do you, do you mean it Riku?" Sora asked carefully, stuttering for fear that it was all just a dream.

Riku cursed under his breath at the stutter, mistaking it for a sound of disgust. He knew he should have never said anything. Now he was going to lose the one thing that he lived for.

"Forget it, never mind." Anguish made his words clipped and harsh and he stood, walking towards the door. His hand was on the doorknob when he heard a distressed cry.

"Wait! Riku! Please don't go."

Riku leaned his head against the door. How could he stay? How could he ever face Sora again knowing that he would never have his love? Even though he loved him so much?

Sora was so scared the moment Riku stood. He saw the hurt in Riku's eyes, and even though he didn't know why he was so upset, Sora knew somehow that if Riku left, he'd never see him again. So he called out to him, nearly in tears from his frustration. He came up behind the halted Riku and hesitantly wrapped his arms loosely around Riku's waist.

Riku sucked in his breath when he felt Sora's hands on his hips, dreading what was coming. It would be something like "its not you it's me" or "let's be friends." He couldn't take that! He just couldn't!

"Sora let go," Riku said, his voice barely above a whisper.

He was surprised at the vehement answer. Sora threw himself at Riku and held him tighter, cuddling into his back as a limpet would to a ship.

"I can't!" Sora said harshly, his voice raw. "I can't let you go Riku, because . . . because I would die inside. I. . . I can't just let you walk away Riku. Because. . . Because I love you."

And then there was silence. Sora felt this impeding doom settle into his soul in that silence. So he did the only thing he could do, he turned Riku around and kissed him with all of his heart, and all of his being. If this was their last kiss, he wanted it to be the best one that they had ever shared.

Riku stood frozen as Sora haltingly whispered his confession. In those few moments Riku felt more emotions than he had ever felt in his whole life. Love, Joy, Contentment, Happiness, Shock. He didn't know what to do so he just stood frozen in place like a statue, while his heart soared on wings.

And then he had received an even bigger shock. Sora literally throwing himself at Riku, and kissing him senseless. Sora had never kissed him like this, really Riku had never been kissed like this. Is this what love did to all of his feelings? He felt in such a heightened state, like he could do anything. But Sora pulled back, and looked Riku in the eye.

"If that was our last kiss," he said with an achingly sweet voice. "I will die happy."

Riku looked down at the blue eyed boy who had changed his life.

"I love you Sora."

Sora looked shocked, happy, scared and all the other emotions that Riku had himself just recently felt. But he regained himself quicker than Riku had and kissed Riku again, with just as much fervor. It wasn't long until Riku was groaning under Sora's hands, amazed at how their confessions had changed the relationship dynamics. Riku pulled back suddenly, confused.

"Sora, why are you doing this? I thought, well, that you didn't want to do anything?"

The blue eyed boy turned the color of tomatoes and looked at his feet.

"Well, no. I was just worried that you were only in this relationship for sex so I vowed that I wouldn't do anything until you admitted that you loved me."

Riku took on a devilish smile, now that all of his fears had been erased.

"Well, now you have me right where you want me, what shall you do to my poor self?"

Another blush, another glance at the floor, as if it had the answers.

"Well, uh, I. . . I really don't know. I've never, uh, done any of that stuff."

Riku smiled at the still blushing Sora. He had Sora's love, what else did he need? It didn't matter that he was hornier than a goat from Sora's heated kisses.

"But, if we, I mean, that is if you want to, do, uh, stuff, then that would be, um, fine with me."

Riku's jaw hit the floor, and Sora felt like his head was going to explode with all of the blushing it was doing.

Riku slid his fingers under Sora's chin and tilted his head up to meet the blue eyed boy's eyes.

"Sora, are you sure?"

Sora nodded, because that was all he could do. He was being devoured by Riku's hungry eyes, and by the burning desire coursing through his own body in waves of flames. Riku however, needed no more encouragement, because his lips were then on Sora's. This was different than it had ever been between them; they were both possessing and being possessed.

Riku slid his tongue along Sora's mouth and elicited a delicate shiver from Sora, who opened his mouth in wanting. Riku plunged his tongue into Sora's mouth and memorized each taste, each feeling. He marveled at the feeling of Sora's hair as he ran his hands through it, pulling Sora closer. A groan tore through his throat as he felt Sora's soft small fingers inching their way up his chest, under his shirt. Suddenly Riku couldn't get enough of Sora's taste, his skin, his touch, all of him. Kissing him was no longer enough. He swept Sora up into his arms and walked with him to the bed, laying him down upon it. But one look down at Sora ebbed the pounding of desire that he felt. This was going to be Sora's first, and Riku wanted to make it his best.

Sora looked up into Riku's darkened eyes and felt passion again sweep through him. He wanted Riku; there was no doubt about it. He wanted to feel . . . having no experience he didn't really know what he wanted to feel, but he knew it was there, and he knew he wanted it. Badly. He squirmed under Riku, trying to pull the other male closer to him, but he was slightly incoherent with passion, and couldn't really see straight. He did notice Riku shake his head at him slowly though.

"I want to please you." Riku said quietly.

Sora didn't really know what Riku meant, but he nodded trustingly. Riku would never hurt him. They loved each other. Everything was perfect now.

Riku felt, and saw, his hands shake as he reached for the bottom of Sora's shirt hem. Gently he tugged on it, and Sora got the hint. The brunette quickly, and ungracefully, pulled the shirt over his head, shrugging out of his lounging pants as well, leaving him nude. He laid back down on the bed with an undignified "thump" while Riku laughed, a smile of adoration on his face, though his eyes were drawn to Sora's body.

His own motions a little uncoordinated he pulled his own shirt over head. With jerky motions he thrust his pants and boxers down to his ankles. Kicking out of them, he laid himself down on the bed next to Sora, pulling the boy to face him. Giving in to his urges his hands splayed across Sora's chest, reveling in the toned but soft contours of his muscles. These educed moans of pleasure from the shivering Sora, his eyes now closed, and lost in the feelings. Riku loved the way he could make Sora moan, feeling very powerful because of it. He wanted to make this perfect. His hands moved slowly downward from Sora's chest and he could feel Sora's breath hitch as he skimmed his stomach. Leaning over Riku slowly licked the outer curve of Sora's earlobe, making Sora mewl and arch. Continuing his downward quest, Riku slowly wrapped his cool fingers around Sora's cock. Sora's eyes flew open, though they were cloudy with lust.

"R-Riku?"

Riku smiled reassuringly and ran his thumb over the very tip of Sora's hardness. This pulled a loud surprised moan from Sora who was now completely lost in the sea of passion. Over and over again Sora thought about just how amazing this was, just how amazing it felt. He arched and moaned again as Riku slowly began moving his hand up and down. No one had ever touched him but himself, and he had never known so much intense pleasure as this.

Riku looked up from nibbling on Sora's collarbone to revel in the small emotional expressions crossing Sora's face as Riku began to speed up his tempo. Riku leaned on his elbow to sit up as he rubbed his thumb continuously in small circles over Sora's throbbing tip, being rewarded with loud groans. Sora's hips bucked against Riku's hand and Riku felt something bloom in his chest. He was the one, the only one, who knew Sora's pleasure, and who had given him pleasure. It was a sort of man-ish pride.

Sora couldn't breathe. He knew any second now he would become unearthly matter and float up into nothingness. He couldn't take this much longer, could already feel himself straining against the reigns as it were. He opened his eyes half way to stare into Riku's own eyes. This was the man he loved; this was who he was meant to be with. He gasped and moaned again and realized that Riku was doing this all for him, to please him. That wasn't how he wanted this to be. Sora desperately needed to show Riku just how much pleasure Riku was giving him.

So he moved his heavy limbs, laden with lust, and pushed Riku onto his back. Riku's eyes went wide and he was about to question when Sora silenced him with his lips, taking control. Riku struggled against it, not used to being the uke. Sora was stubborn in his quest to "tame" Riku with passion, however, so he slid his body lower, his face level with Riku's hips. He slowly tickled his tongue against Riku's inner thigh, causing Riku to shake uncontrollably.

"S-Sora, what are you doing to me?" Riku whispered tightly.

Sora tentatively kissed his way from inner-knee up towards Riku's groin. He didn't really know what he was doing, but he had watched a lot of porn. Of course it was all mostly straight porn, but the theories had to be the same right? He chuckled a little at the thought of him being the girl in the relationship. The chuckling sent little puffs of warm air against Riku's skin and Riku moaned. Sora gained power and confidence. Slowly, very slowly, he leaned his head down, spikes falling into his eyes and kissed the tip of Riku's cock. Riku moaned and raised his hips helplessly against Sora's mouth. Sora grinned wickedly and began placing small nipping kisses all over Riku's length. Riku moaned again and Sora reveled in the feeling of power. Opening his mouth, Sora knew that he wanted to do this for his love, and slowly took Riku's entire length into his mouth.

Riku's breath left his body with a whoosh, sawing in and out of his chest haphazardly. He couldn't believe Sora was doing this, more over he couldn't believe how incredible it felt. Sora's tongue timidly ran across the tip while he sucked gently and Riku thought that he would die of pleasure.

He could see it now, being wheeled in to the hospital, and the nurses would coo in sympathy.

"Poor thing, he was killed by too much sexual pleasure."

Sora began to move his head up and down and Riku forced himself to pull Sora up by the shoulders. Sora looked at him a little hurt.

"You, didn't like it?"

Riku shook his head adamantly.

"No, no! It was wonderful, but if you kept that up I knew I wouldn't last much longer."

Sora looked confused and a little disappointed so Riku kissed him.

"Trust me; you'll like this much more."

"Anything you want to do Riku." Sora's voice sounded dreamy.

Riku nodded because his voice was gone, his head filled with all of the images of just what he could do to Sora. _Take it slow,_ he reminded himself. Sure, easier said than done.

He laid Sora on his back on the bed again, slowly pushing his legs open and kneeling between them. His hands found Sora's throbbing hardness again and began stroking once more, causing Sora to shout out in pleasure. With each moan and shout Riku felt a stabbing of pleasure through him, loving the sight of Sora writhing beneath him. But he felt a need so strong pounding through him, and knew that Sora felt the same.

So he took his other hand and raised his fingers to his own lips, Sora's eyes following him in a drug-like state. Seductively Riku sucked two fingers into his mouth, wetting them completely. He moved his hand back down to probe at Sora's opening.

Sora knew better than to be scared, he trusted Riku with his entire being. He had watched porn, he knew what was going to happen, and he had heard that at first it hurt, but he just couldn't picture it. With Riku, it would be perfect, he knew it.

Riku's slick fingers slowly began penetrating Sora, all the while slowly stroking Sora's throbbing shaft. Sora was so tight around him Riku shuddered to hold onto his control. He wanted nothing more to just take Sora right then and there, hard hot and fast. But he couldn't hurt Sora, no matter what, so he took it slow. Pushing gently until he could move his finger in and out comfortably, without pain. He then slowly inserted a second finger, probing and stretching Sora in preparation.

Sora couldn't stop the moans and bucking of his hips. The feelings that swamped over him could no longer be defined; he was only a shivering bundle of want and need.

"Riku-Riku please!" Sora near shouted. He didn't know what he pleading for but he knew that he wanted it.

Riku grunted, unable to hold back any longer. Placing his hands that shook he raised Sora's hips to meet his own, pulling them up as he thrust down. Sora gritted his teeth against the sharp pains, but one of Riku's hands found him again, teasing and stroking, making him groan and cry out again.

When he felt Sora relax Riku let go of the last shred of his control, thrusting hard and moving his hands with fierce fast motions. Sora wrapped his arms tightly around Riku's shoulders and moaned. They were both caught up in a timeless rhythm towards release. Suddenly Sora's nails dug into Riku's back and Riku clung tightly to Sora, throwing his head back.

"RIKU!"

"Oh god, Sora!"

They lay, spent, together, their heartbeats racing. Riku rolled to lie next to Sora, pulling him to cuddle close. Sora sighed contently and nestled himself against Riku's chest.

"I love you Riku." Sora whispered drowsily.

"I love you Sora." Riku whispered back and knew that this love was the forever kind. A few hours late, however, the phone rang, its sound blaring.

* * *

Axel looked down at the shorter male currently standing beside him. His breath was sawing in and out of his chest. Roxas was currently doubled over, his hands on his knees, taking deep steadying breaths. They had raced to the theatre from about half way. Axel had won of course, but surprisingly not by much. Sure of his running capabilities, he had taken it at a slow jog, and was soon passed by a short blonde. What was even more surprising was the fact that it was hard to catch back up to Roxas, and even harder to catch him.

_But I did it_ Axel thought smugly.

Roxas sighed and stood, looking over at Axel.

"Fine, you win, I'll buy."

Axel shook his head, "Nah, I'll buy, seeing as you're my slave."

Roxas growled under his breath. "Fine!" Stomping away he headed for the doors. Axel did notice that once Roxas was stationary again, his eyes found Axel once more. Those made Axel feel something unknown, that Roxas couldn't even take his eyes off of him for a few moments. Axel suddenly grinned evilly. Soon he would have his little slave in the dark movie theatre.

Looking up at the shows available he saw a movie that he had heard was terribly scary. He himself didn't get scared by movies, but he could always hope that Roxas was! Buying two tickets he met Roxas at the door and handed him his ticket.

"Thanks," Roxas said blushing.

"You're welcome." Axel said as they walked in and handed the tickets to the ticket-guy.

"Hey, do you want any popcorn?" Axel asked, looking down into Roxas's stunning blue eyes. Axel hated popcorn but for some reason he wanted to buy Roxas anything that he might want. Roxas, however, shook his head.

"No thanks, I hate popcorn."

Axel smiled. Chalk it up, another thing they had in common. Axel bowed, offering his arm to Roxas and Roxas laughed a sound that made Axel's heart do silly loops in his chest. Roxas accepted his arm graciously, with a mock bow of his own, and away they went, towards the dark unknown.

* * *

Roxas POV

I followed Axel to the very back row of the still illuminated theatre room. We still had almost a half an hour and the screen was playing cheesy concession stand commercials and old movie trivia. I hoped that we were something at least decent. It had been a while since I had gone to the movies, quite a long way in fact, but that didn't mean I had lost my tastes. Maybe it would be some romantic comedy, or even better, action with a lot of car chases. I just hope that it's anything but a horror flick. I** hate** scary movies with a vengeance.

Hey, don't think I'm frightened or anything, because I'm not! They're just so, in your face, and mad men popping out of no where, and . . . yeah okay, so they scare me a little bit. Maybe even to uh, phobia, level. It's hard for me to admit being scared about anything. So, I just hope that he didn't pick a scary movie.

We sat down in the middle, and Axel put his long legs over the back of the chair in front of him. If he slouched down a little he could easily bend his knees over the back of the other chair. My eyes were instantly drawn to his long legs, the muscles defined in his tight pants. I hadn't noticed it before but his entire outfit was, well, _tight. _ His shirt wrapped against his chest like a glove, he pants . . . even tighter. I gulped and looked away hurriedly, my cheeks flushing and my hands growing damp. I was nervous and excited at the same time. Suddenly my pants were too tight, and I wriggled, trying to adjust.

Axel looked over at me as I fidgeted in my seat and raised an eyebrow.

"You okay?"

I nodded quickly. "Yeah, I'm just not very good with small talk."

"Me either."

So we sat in silence, staring at the ads flashing across the overly large screen. With nothing else to do, my mind wandered to the seat next to me. I couldn't help but wonder about what he was thinking. I blushed a little as I realized that I wished he was thinking about me. Ah! It was all so complicated. I didn't _want _to like anyone like him. Those made me stop to think. Someone like him? Come to think about it, I really didn't know much about the guy sitting next to me.

My mouth of course, took the idea and ran. "Tell me something about you that no one else knows."

* * *

Axel's POV

It's very quiet in the theatre. That's all that I could think of. Since it was a mid-afternoon showing, no one else was around in the entire multi-plex, let alone in this showing room. We sat in the very back, and I was tempted to pull the old yawn-arm-over-the-shoulders act. I could pull it off, I think, nice and smooth and suave.

Roxas was making things difficult though, with all of his squirming. He'd sit in a position for one moment, a perfect target for my ace seduction, and then he'd wiggle away out of my grasp. Oh the torment. It didn't help my libido that his clothes left very little to the imagination. I could feel the drool begging to drip down my face.

But then he settled down again, and it got quiet. I usually didn't mind the quiet, but this was intense. So I sat, and thought. Most about Roxas. Something had changed in Roxas, something pleasant. I think that he's finally decided that it's okay to like me. That was something else, something incredible. But I became aware of the silence again, and it was just too much now. I felt like I should crack a joke, or say anything, just so it wasn't so . . . uncomfortable feeling.

I felt eyes on me and so I turned, my gaze finding Roxas's own. I raised an eyebrow, since he looked like he wanted to ask me something. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting though.

"Tell me something about you that no one else knows."

Instead of the joke that quickly flew to my lips, I decided to remain quiet. For some reason, Roxas meant enough to me to see the real me, not the joker exterior that most people saw. Maybe. . . Maybe this could be something more than just attraction?

But Roxas was looking at me expectantly, and so I said the first thing that came to mind.

"My favorite food is lasagna."

Roxas looked at me weirdly.

"I said something that no one else knows."

I looked away, fiddling with my fingers.

"Yeah, so? Nobody. . . Nobody ever asked what my favorite food was."

And it was true. No one had ever asked what my favorite food was. Really, no one had asked anything from me. My two best fiends, Demyx and Zexion, had just as many problems as I did, and were battling the miseries of college. When the three of us were together we didn't talk about trivial things such as favorite foods and favorite anything's. We just relaxed together, and forgot about the world. Come to think of it. . . Roxas would probably really like my friends.

"My favorite color is green."

I tilted my head back to him, my embarrassment basically gone. He was blushing and it took me a while to understand why. Oh, right, my eyes are green. My smile definitely widened, and I winked at him, fluttering my eyelashes at him.

"Oh, so you like my eyes do you?"

Roxas blushed and looked away from me. My heart clenched when he gave the tiniest of nods. At that moment I felt like I could fly. And then something struck me.

"Wait, I thought that we were only supposed to say things that no one else knew."

I felt his entire being stiffen, even though we weren't touching.

* * *

Roxas's POV

My entire body clenched, and I started shutting down as I usually did when I was faced with painful situations. But I didn't want to run away from life any more. This time I was going to fight for a chance at happiness. Before, the only happiness had been from the one light in my life; Namine. When she was gone I hadn't known what to do anymore, thrown back into the darkness. I had never thought that I could find that light again. But Axel made me feel as no one, even Namine, had made me feel. So from now on, I was going to give living a chance again, and maybe I could find the peace I've always really been searching for.

So I turned to him, my heart on my sleeve.

"No one's ever asked, and I've never had anyone to tell. But I-I wanted to tell you Axel, because for some reason that I just can't understand, you're worth it."

And, rather than looking away, I stared deeply into his eyes. I was scared out of my mind, my whole body tingling. I really had no idea what I would do if he said I was crazy, but it _was_ worth it. I have no idea what changed inside me, I really don't, but I just knew that the person sitting next to me was the one that I was supposed to be with, and I was willing to put everything on the line. There really wasn't any explanation for it; I just knew what I was feeling.

* * *

Axel's POV

I was speechless. I really didn't know what to say. What had made him change his thinking so drastically? I could have sworn that the other day he hated my guts? Maybe-maybe he was feeling this same undeniable pull that I was?

Either way, I was shaking so hard I couldn't stop, an emotion so fierce coursing through my body I didn't really know how to deal with it. So I sat and shook, and got lost in his blue eyes. He looked defiant, as if I was about to throw such a declaration in his face. There was no way that I could do that though, because if I let this moment go, I knew, I just **_knew_** with my body heart mind and soul that I would regret it for the rest of my life.

"I really don't know what to say short-stuff. I've never felt anything like this before, but, somehow, you're worth it too."

Roxas smiled, and it was enough, it was all I needed. Then he nodded, as if something confusing had just made sense, and settled back into his chair.

Oh man, what, no happy-ending kiss?

I felt dejected, so I crossed my arms over my chest and slouched down into my chair. I really couldn't say anything because the lights had already started to dim, the beginning-movie music starting to play.

After a "please be quiet" warning, the previews started to play. It seemed like everything that was about to come out was animated, and centered on cute furry animals. I liked pleasant comedies as much as the next guy, but what I really loved was big, fiery car crashes. Oh yeah.

A startled laugh escaped Roxas's lips, as if he hadn't been expecting to laugh, and I turned to look to the side. His profile greeted me in a faint light, radiating from the screen.

Operation, Seduce Roxas, go!

* * *

(Third Person POV Again)

Roxas watched the previews, laughing and oohing at all the right places. He was very relaxed, and was actually enjoying himself immensely. Axel's eyes surreptitiously strayed from the screen towards his companion.

_I wonder what he'd do if I just leaned over and kissed him,_ Axel thought. _No, that might be too fast for him. There's no saying that he meant what I think he did with the whole "you mean a lot to me" yeah, better to take it slow Axel. _

That didn't mean that he didn't **want** to lean over and kiss the socks off of his blonde haired date. Oh how he wanted to, and he was going to. But he would have to be smooth about it.

Roxas settle down more comfortable as the movie itself started. Creepy music was the first give-away that this was not his favorite type of movie. But, he'd liked Sleepy Hallow, and that had started out rather creepy, so, who knew right? Right? He shrank into the seat more, as if to escape the movie that was blaring loudly across the speakers.

Once the credit's finished it opened onto what looked like a bathroom. There was blood everywhere.

_Screaming, all he could hear was screaming. High pitched and female. "No!" As he ran onto the scene he saw two men, cloaked in black, standing over her, killing her. He ran and grabbed the closest one by the collar, pulling him within range of his fists. The man's face was illuminated by a lightening bolt and looked panicked and stricken. The man screamed something, but the words were lost in the thunder and he just didn't care. His fists crashed into the man's face and the man went down. _

The camera zoomed into a man lying on the cold white tile of the bathroom. His leg was chained in what looked like an old fashion manacle. Beside him lay an edged saw. The man picked up the saw and with a yell began dragging the jagged saw through his own flesh, pulling and pushing it, sawing off his own leg at the ankle in cries of agony.

_Silence now, the screaming ceased. With a yell of fury he grabbed the man by the back of his black coat, pulling him off of her. He couldn't stop himself, his fists pummeling over and over again into the man's form, until the tears of rage had subsided. Throwing the now lifeless body to the floor with a disgusted jerk. _

The next scene had graced the screen, a naked woman suspended in some kind of apparatus inside what looked to be a large meat freezer. Water sprayed sporadically onto her unclothed body, causing it to purple and blue with the cold.

_She lay lifeless, her blonde white hair covered in blood, her own. Her body was sprawled in a broken position, pale and lifeless._

Another horrific scene in this terrible movie as he began to tremble. It was past phobia, past rational fear. Now, it was only memories. Another woman on the screen, another suspension. An evil voice narrated what would happen to this woman if she couldn't escape in cold cruel detail. But in the following sequence, it was apparent she never stood a chance, and the dark machine ripped from her body her own ribs, blood spurting everywhere.

_A large gash scarred her from side to side on her neck, oozing a deep crimson liquid. He wrapped his own gashed and bloody arms around her, cradling her body close, as if he could bring her back if he held her tight enough. A harsh wind blew his long spiked hair into his eyes, as a freezing wind washed away his tears. He looked at her body and knew he would get revenge, somehow. Namine._

Axel was jerked out of his plots of seduction at a loud, anguished cry. His eyes were immediately drawn to the source of such a powerful grief, Roxas. His hands were clenched, his nails digging half-crescent blood trails into his arms. His eyes were wide and clouded, unseeing.

Axel stopped breathing, stopped thinking, only acted. He twisted in his seat and reached for Roxas, pulling him against his chest. He murmured words of what he thought would sooth. Roxas's body was stiff and trembling. What happened to him? Did he really hate scary movies this bad? Axel suddenly felt an intense guilt. Was his suffering his fault?

He pulled back, tucking his long fingers under Roxas's chin; he lifted the blonde's head to meet his darkened, clouded, blue eyes. In the dark light, something struck inside him, almost like a memory, but he couldn't remember it. Besides, it was more important to apologize, to set this right.

Roxas looked up, his eyes blurry and unfocused. Someone was shaking him . . . who? He began focus as dialogue pounded out of the speakers of the movie. His now clear eyesight came to rest upon Axel, who looked panicked and stricken. Why did this look so familiar? The camera switched scenes, to something brighter, and Axel's face was suddenly illuminated.

It hit them both at the same time.

Roxas jumped up, his heart pounding and twisted, screaming.

"YOU KILLED HER!" He shouted wildly, as Axel just stared shocked and frozen.

Roxas drew back his fist and punched Axel square in the jaw, but Axel didn't even move, just stared, mouth agape.

"You-you're the boy-you're-"

Roxas screamed in torment, an agony so acute rushing through his nerves he could barely stand. He could take no more, his mind shot, complete lunacy running through him. He turned, unseeing, unthinking. He just moved and ran blindly from the theatre.

* * *

Cliffhanger.

Uh, the movie that was mentioned above is SAW III, but the scenes aren't in order. I of course, own no part of SAW III.

Hooray for Riku and Sora. This was my first slash sex scene so go easy on me. Please please review, I'm feeling a little low with my11 reviews. :(

**Chapter Eight-**

**In Which Friends Get Involved.**

Was Axel really her killer? How will he redeem himself in Roxas's eyes? And again, what happened to going to school? Find out next time.


	8. In Which Friends Get Involved

**Secrets in Love**

By Zess

**Chapter:** 8/20

Disclaimer: I do not own KH (or the characters) FF (or the characters) so STFU you crazy lawsuit people.

A/N: This chapter was a little slow going. I don't know why but I had major writer's block for it. Also, I'm sorry that it shortened down considerably from the last, but I didn't have anything else to put in there. A little bit of angst, Demyx and Zexion are introduced, and the smaller problems are slightly mended.

ALSO! Zess has written another fanfic. It's a _very_ angst filled one-shot, AkuRoku only, and short. There's a contest connected to it, so it would be great if you readers could go read and review and perhaps participate in the contest! (yeah, I'm shamelessly plugging)

Thanks so much for everyone reading this; it's amazing for my first fanfic. Let's get on with the show!

KajiMori: Thanks! I really liked chapter 7, so far it's my favorite. It's good to know that I didn't completely botch the slash scene And yeah, personally, I didn't think Saw was all that scary (though I admit there were some moments in the first one) but for the story's sake, I didn't think a boogie-man movie would have wound up with the same effect on Roxy. Thanks again for reviewing!

Frogfly: Thank you kindly: And I hope this update is soon enough

Chibi Neko Doll: Yeah, the slash scene was a little too over-the-top for me as well, but since I really had no foundation I tried my best Plus I wanted it to end up too melodramatic rather then too mechanical. Thank you though

SoraPuppy: Thanks again for reviewing!

**Chapter Eight -**

**In Which Friends Get Involved**

Axel sat unmoving, his mouth still open, his body numb.

_He had escaped, and now he was going back. He couldn't understand, but here he was. The air was frigid, as Axel hid behind a large willow tree. He had been waiting here, disguised, for almost two hours, and he was chilled to the bone. The mantra that kept repeating in his head was: you have to save her. _

_He suddenly heard a rustle and a soft, muffled scream. That must be them. He ran full tilt, out of his hiding place, bearing down onto a black cloaked male dragging along a pale blonde haired girl. He recognized her assailant as __**Lexaeus, a member of The Organization. He was smiling, something that chilled Axel to the very bone. Not taking any chances he kicked Lexaeus in the back, lithely moving around his surprised form and slicing his hand into Lexaeus's solar plexus. **_ _**But Lexaeus wasn't going down that easy and grabbed Axel by the hair, his foot stomping onto Axel's instep hard with spiked soles, drawing blood. Axel howled in pain and Lexaeus moved to grab the girl again, trying to rush off with her, but Axel grabbed him by the coattails, holding him fast.**_ "_**Lexaeus, no!"**_ _**He heard the girl scream as he did, but her words and his own were lost under the thunder. Suddenly Axel was grabbed by his own jacket, pulling him away from Lexaeus. He tried with his whole might to hold on; fearing the girl's life, but it was no use. His eyes met a stark blue, filled with rage. **_ "_**Damn it let me go! I have to save her!" Axel shouted to his new attacker. **_ _But once again his words were drowned out by the horrendous thunder. The blue eyed devil didn't seem to care anyways, for his fist connecting painfully to Axel's face. And then he was being thrown down onto the floor, his eyesight blurry. The last thing he remembered was lying in the rain, a faint, muffled sobbing the only sound around him. _ He still couldn't believe it. That boy had been Roxas? His Roxas? 

"_They killed her, they killed Namine. She was the only person I had ever loved and they killed her. The organization. . ."_

It **had** been him. That was the reason that he was looking for revenge. Suddenly everything made a sort of sense. He was surprised that he hadn't recognized Roxas sooner. Maybe it was just that he tried not to think of that day.

He was slowly drawn back into the present as the lights relit inside the showing room. Roxas was gone, far gone.

"_YOU KILLED HER!"_

Roxas thought that he was her murder? Hadn't he heard him at that deserted park? He had been trying to save her! The sight of Roxas's haggard face came back to haunt him. Abruptly everything came crashing down on him. Did Roxas hate him now? What was going to happen? He felt his heart clench into knots. He had a sinking feeling that Roxas was never going to talk to him, so what could he do? Axel did the only thing he could think of doing, he stood, and walked home, feeling as if the world had suddenly turned his back on him.

Sora yawned and stretched languidly in bed. He was greeted with a soft chuckle, and as his eyes opened sticky with sleep, he met the loving gaze of Riku. Sora couldn't help smile a very corny smile and leap out of bed. This caught Riku off guard, and soon they were both sprawled out on the floor, Sora nuzzling his face against Riku's stomach.

"Morning Riku!"

Riku groaned and Sora looked up, grinning playfully.

"Sora! How much longer, do-ya' think it'll take before my head cracks open because of your antics?"

Sora stuck his tongue out and Riku leaned down to swiftly lick it. Sora scooted back, looking horrified.

"Eww, gross!" Sora quickly rubbed his tongue off on his sleeping shirt. Riku, of course, looked affronted.

"Gross? That's not what you were screaming last night!"

And the mother of all pillows whacked him in the face.

"Shaddup Riku," Sora said, giving his best pouty face. No one could resist the pouty face, not even Riku.

"Awwe, Sora I'm sorry." Riku said quickly, and gathered Sora up in his arms, kissing his forehead.

"It's okay!" Sora was wide awake now, and bounced around the room, picking out clothes to wear for school that day. Once dressed in an off red sort of pants/short-Capri/ things and a TMNT t-shirt he began to search for his cell phone. Having been unsuccessful for ten minutes, every other minute filled with Riku's laughter, Sora finally found it. Its shiny black surface winked up at him under a pile of old socks in the very back of his closet. How it had gotten in there since yesterday, Sora had no idea. Flipping it open a small light flickered at him.

**YOU HAVE: ****1**** UNHEARD MESSAGE(S)**

Curious, he dialed his voice mail and immediately recognized the voice as Roxas. Actually, it just sounded like his own voice, but since he knew that he hadn't left himself a message, it had to be his clone like friend. Sora's body soon began to shake, as he listened to the softly spoken message.

Here's one thing that you had to know about Sora. He loved nearly everyone he met, and anyone he loved would mean so much to him, that he would risk his life for his friends. He was one of those people who actually _would_ be there when all the shit went down.

"Sorry Sora . . . but I'll be leaving here. Don't look for me and don't worry, because I'll be fine. Goodbye." And that was all. No, that wasn't all. Sora had barely known Roxas, but thy were practically replica, and Sora felt so terribly connected to Roxas, like he was that one piece of the puzzle that had always been missing. So Sora jumped up, grabbed the worried looking Riku, and ran with him out the door.

"We have to find Roxas."

He sat in a sleazy back alleyway. His clothes were torn and muddy, his face dirty. He didn't care about the state of the world though. All he cared about was the anger, the hurt, and the betrayal coursing throughout his very being. Roxas couldn't even deign to describe the agony that his heart felt. He had trusted Axel had . . . well he didn't know, but he had felt something for him, and Axel had betrayed him, more so then any other. He had even given up on his revenge, wishing not to be alive. So he sat, and wished that he would slowly starve to death.

They were making out. On his couch. Naked.

Axel had been wandering around the town in a sort of stupor for the whole night. He had finally decided to come home the next day, and to what? An overly horny college couple making out on his couch. This was the last straw. Axel collapsed onto the floor, laughing hysterically, his head thrown back against the back of the couch, roaring with mirth, tears streaming down his eyes.

The couple on the couch paused, and a bewildered Demyx peered over the side of the couch. When he noticed Axel his eyes got wide, and excited.

"Axel babe! You're finally back! Zexy and I were just . . . uh, never mind that, anyways . . . Axel?" Demyx finally realized that there was something wrong. "Axel, are you okay? AXEL!?"

Demyx jumped off the couch, Zexion landing with a disgruntled "humph" on the floor. Axel looked up with eyes a little cloudy, and turned to his friend.

"Hullo Demyx!" he waved a little listlessly, looking and sounding drugged.

Though Demyx was butt-ass naked, he dropped to his knees next to his best friend. He had seen Axel like this only once, and he knew something terrible must have happened. He looked back over his shoulder at Zexion, who had stood and was flicking invisible dust off of his bare stomach, looking thoughtful. He too, was Axel's best friend, and knew what must be done. Zexion nodded, being one of little words, and turned to pick his discarded off the floor. So, being the caring and concerned friend that he was, Demyx wound up and slapped Axel as hard as was humanly possible. Now, Demyx might _act _more girly than was necessary, but he still had muscles, and even a bitch slap hurt.

Axel's eyes got wide, and the clouded nature of their green depths receded. He blinked a few times, and his mouth hung open slightly.

"You bitch slapped me!" He shouted indignantly.

Demyx shrugged, "You needed it." He looked up, his eyes drilling holes into Axel. "So, what's wrong?"

Axel was going to argue, but Demyx was looking at him with The Look. If you have never been one to receive The Look, then let me explain. Demyx had some mad telepathy skills, and somehow always _knew_ just what you were thinking. You couldn't hide anything from him. When Demyx used The Look, you knew you were doomed. It was easier just to bare your soul right there, because he would get it out of you. Or blackmail it out of you. Or humiliate it out of you. And Axel had already learned this lesson. So Axel looked down at his carpet, his pianist fingers tracing intricate designs into its surface. It wasn't very long before the memories of what had happened recently were running rampant through his brain. He got lost in them, slowly sinking into the pit of despair, his eyes closed.

Demyx saw the look of hopelessness that crossed Axel's face, and felt a sort of rage building inside him. Someone had hurt Axel, and they would pay. He wrapped his arms around his lanky red haired friend, and pulled Axel's head to his metaphorical bosom.

Axel felt a warm embrace, and snuggled into its comfort. He needed something to make the past events leave his tired mind, and this warmth, whatever it was, seemed to do the job. Soon, he felt better and able to speak, so he opened his eyes. And was met with a very intimate view of Demyx's package.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?!?" Axel screamed and jumped up.

Demyx looked a little nonplussed. "What?"

Zexion exited the bathroom, where he had been fixing his mused appearance, and stood behind Demyx, looking down. A small smile, so small in fact that if you hadn't have known Zexion you wouldn't have seen anything other than a stoic expression, but it was there.

"Clothes." Zexion whispered quietly.

Demyx had the grace to blush. Stumbling to his feet he whisked around the room, and pulled his clothes on haphazardly while Axel looked completely ludicrous, his eyes tightly closed, and his face screwed up. "Gross" Axel mumbled under his breath.

"Oh Axy-poo, it's not like you've never seen me naked before," Demyx crooned as he jerked on his pants, dragging them up over his hips and fastening them quickly. Zexion growled as he sat in one of the two easy chairs in the room. You could almost feel the air turn frigid with the look he was shooting Axel. But the other males didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, yeah," Axel said, looking embarrassed. He pulled himself up off the floor and sat his long form down on his now defiled couch "But that was like, forever ago. We were just kids."

Demyx shrugged, and yelped a little as he was pulled onto Zexion's lap. He smiled, playfully, and gave Zexion the sweetest of chaste kisses, and then turned back to Axel, who was fidgeting.

"Alright Axel babe, spill it."

Axel felt their eyes on him, and shifted uncomfortably. It was hard enough trying to feel these emotions and memories coursing through him, but to say it? Unfortunately these two, especially Demyx weren't going to leave until he said something.

"Roxas, semi-broke up with me. It's only semi because I black-mailed him into going on a date with me for information on this old gang I was in, but now he thinks I murdered his old girlfriend so he wont talk to me, and I really have no idea where he is."

With that Axel stood, and wandered into the kitchen. Rummaging through his fridge, he pulled out a small can of soda, and headed back to his living room. He sat back on his couch, popping the top, and taking a long pull of his soda. Demyx looked at him, unblinking, and then raised his eyebrows.

"Don't fuck with us, Axy-poo, we're your best friends, we deserve more then that."

And he was right. Who could Axel trust more than these two? No one. They had been with him through some of the worst times of his life, when he was afraid of everything, always looking over his shoulder. They _did _deserve the truth. So he sighed, and looked down at the now half empty can of soda in his hands.

"Well then, I guess I should start at the beginning. . ."

"RO-X-AS!"

"Roxas! Come on! Where are you?"

The pair ran through the streets of the small suburbia of Destiny Islands, past the frou-frou boutiques and the cookie cutter houses, the large buildings and the slummy areas. As they went a few people murmured, they were holding hands after all, and it was a small town. But the couple had long since learned how to ignore it and kept along. So far they had looked seemingly everywhere and still could not find him.

"Where can he be?" Sora asked Riku, looking tired and distressed.

"I know as well as you do Sora." Riku said, sighing. He really didn't know Roxas, though from what he could tell he was an alright guy. But he hated seeing Sora so worked up, and so he would do everything he could to find the missing teen. "Can you think of anything that he mentioned recently?" Riku asked looking up and down the street they were jogging down.

"No," Sora said pathetically. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks. "Oh! Wait! He said something about Axel and him going to the movies yesterday. That must be it! That nymphomaniac jerk Axel must have raped Roxas at the movies and Roxas is too embarrassed to stay in this small town!"

Sora's eyes lit up with a determination that slightly worried Riku.

"Uh, Sora, let's not jump to conclusions, we don't even know-" Riku was cut off as he was dragged forward abruptly.

"Come on Riku! You and Axel used to be friends kind of right? You _must _know where he lives! Let's go! We can't let him go around treating people like this!"

Riku sighed, feeling a huge sense of impending doom, but there was no stopping his feisty better-half now that he was on a roll. So Riku allowed himself to be dragged, and hoped to God that things didn't end up the way he was thinking they would.

" . . . And that's really all of it." Axel took a deep breath and sighed, ruffling his hair with his fingers.

Demyx moved to sit next to Axel, wrapping his arms around his friend, and pulling him close. Axel accepted the embrace, and rested his head on Demyx's shoulder. Zexion felt a bit uncomfortable at their closeness, but he understood, so he remained quiet. It wasn't as if Axel wasn't his friend as well. He felt as much pain for his friend and Demyx did, he just wasn't as good at expressing his feelings, or giving comfort to another. So he sat back, and let Demyx do all he could to cheer up their deflated friend.

"Why didn't you ever tell us?" Demyx asked softly. Zexion nodded.

Even though Axel had his eyes closed, he still heard the softly spoken question, and still felt Zexion nod.

"I didn't want to get you two involved."

Instead of being indignant, Demyx and Zexion sat in silence, trading looks. Zexion nodded his assent again, and Demyx smiled. Zexion fidgeted a little, a blush creeping up on his cheeks at the heat of Demyx's smile.

Demyx's smile got a little wider, rival to the brightest of light bulbs. He shook Axel a little, until the flame-haired male was looking at him.

"Well, were involved now." He smiled reassuringly at Axel. "And we want to be. Before we do anything though, I think we should go and try to find Roxas, and explain everything."

Axel looked pained and said in a dejected voice "but he already hates me, he won't listen."

Zexion looked smug. "Then you have nothing to lose by trying."

No one could refute this, and so Axel finally nodded, sighing. Unexpectedly he smiled, a slightly forced, slightly psychotic smile, and waggled his eyebrows. "Shall we then?"

Demyx laughed and was up swiftly. Now the matured, college adult, he no longer _bounced_ around with unlimited enthusiasm. Now he _frolicked _which was much more appropriate. So, our favorite nocturne _frolicked _his was over to his boyfriend, and all three moved towards the door. Axel slowly reached for the door, with a little dread, he did not want to face Roxas again, but Zexion was right, what could he lose? As soon as he turned the knob, the door flew open, and Axel was hit with a torpedo. A brunette torpedo. A yelling, screaming, and clawing brunette torpedo.

Surprised out of his mind, Axel fell to the floor with a loud crash, the brunette torpedo scratching and hitting and pummeling Axel for all he was worth. Axel had to give whoever it was credit, they definitely hit harder then one would have assumed based on their small size. But soon two pairs of hands were dragging the torpedo off of him, which turned out to be none other than little Sora from his school.

"Sora?" He asked incredulously.

Sora huffed and strained against Zexion's death grip. The silver haired male had Sora pinned to the floor, his knee to the brunette's back, pulling Sora's arms back behind him.

"What is the meaning of this?" Zexion asked quietly. There it was again, that frigid voice that sent shivers down one's spine. Sora was not immune to this.

He quieted a little, but his voice lost none of its enthusiasm, or its venom. "He raped Roxas! And now Roxas is gone! He will DIE!"

And with that he squirmed hard against Zexion's restraints, trying to leap for Axel's throat again. Unfortunately for him, Zexion was no pushover, especially in Demyx's presence. No one would ever make him look unmanly while Demyx was around.

Axel moved to sit, crossing his legs Indian style on his floor, his eyebrows raised. "I-wait what the hell? I didn't rape Roxas!"

Another male burst through Axel's door at this point, panting and out of breath. "Where's Sora? I told him that he was being stupid but he wouldn't listen, he hasn't done anything retarded has he?"

Riku's eyes fell on Zexion, holding his beloved down and all of his sanity went out the window. With a roar of fury he flew with unmatched speed toward his silver haired counterpart. "Fucker!" He shouted as his war cry, and grabbed Zexion by the hair, pulling him off Sora, and throwing him towards a wall. Zexion hit with an undignified bump, and his temper went out of control. Racing back towards his attacker he swung his fist back, and hit Riku square in the jaw.

Sora, on the other hand, was leaping menacing at Axel again, now that he had been freed from Zexion's hold. Demyx, who had been shocked into immobilization, moved at the sight of his best friend being attacked by a brunette shrimp. He stepped in front of Axel and thrust his foot in Sora's way, affectively tripping him up.

As Riku and Zexion decked it out in the back of the room, Sora and Demyx began what would go down in history as THE Bitch slap fight. Slapping and clawing and growling their fight was flung to the floor and they wrestled there, trying to gain some sort of advantage.

Axel did a double-take at the madness going on inside his apartment and finally couldn't take it any more.

"STOP!" he shouted, the word loud enough to shake the smaller furniture and vase like objects.

All parties were effectively halted, and all eyes turned toward him. "Separate!" He shouted again, though this time a bit quieter. Everyone, spotting multiple bruises and scratches, retreated to either side of the room.

"So, uh, what the fuck just happened here?" Axel asked, rather confused.

Sora was the first to answer. "You raped Roxas so he left me a message saying that he was leaving town and so you had to pay!" By the end of this his conviction had been restored, and Sora was close to assailing Axel again, Zexion and Demyx were ready to spring to his defense, and Riku was ready to protect his boyfriend.

Before another riot could break out in his living room again, Axel sent a menacing glare to all parties, and turned back to Sora who had quieted again. Looking him in the eye, he shook his head slowly, as if to make his point clear.

"I didn't rape him."

Sora opened his mouth to reply but the look on Axel face stopped him. Axel looked so worn down, so haggard, that perhaps, just maybe, he was telling the truth. Sora looked at the shag carpeting. "You . . . you didn't?" He asked, his voice shaking a little.

Riku and Zexion had mostly regained their bearings and looked at each other across the room. They spoke to each other without words, and both nodded. Riku turned to Axel.

"Okay, we understand, kind of. But since you didn't rape him, what happened?"

Axel sighed, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was bone tired, and didn't really want to be awake anymore, or have to explain it again. He looked to Demyx, pleading and his friend smiled his usual reassuring smile. He gestured at Sora and Riku, all previous vengeful actions forgotten, and led them outside onto the balcony. "Come on, I'll explain."

Axel and Zexion sat in blessed silence for a while, though they could hear the faint mumblings of Demyx, Riku, and Sora outside. Finally Zexion turned to face Axel.

"Ax?" He said in his normal soft tones. This time however, it held a sort of sympathy, and care.

Axel looked over towards Zexion and met his eyes. "Yeah Zex?" He asked in question.

"Do you love him?"

Axel looked down towards his toes, wiggling them inside his socks. Trust Zexion to get straight to the point. "I don't know. But it sure feels like _something._"

Zexion nodded, and again, even though he wasn't looking, Axel felt it. It's what happens between people that have been friends for such a long time. The tension was palpable in the air and Zexion cleared his throat, much louder than usual.

"Uh . . . well, uh. . ." for the first time in his life, Zexion was stuttering. "I'll be there." He said hastily, the words squished together. "I mean, I'll always be there. For you."

Axel was oddly touched. Zexion was not one for endearments. Axel moved over to the silver haired male and wrapped his arms hesitantly around the other male, and yelped when he was wrapped in a tight hug. Once he had gotten over his shock, Axel smiled and hugged him back. "Thanks. . . Thank you Zex."

"_Thank you Zex."_ Axel's voice was poorly imitated by Demyx.

The pair jumped apart, both blushing fiercely. Thankfully, Demyx did nothing more then give them both a knowing look that said _this is going to be brought up over and over again as blackmail for both of you. _ As everyone marched back into Axel's living room,

Now that all differences and questions had been cleared up the five-some set themselves up in an odd shaped circle.

Demyx, who had dubbed himself chief in commander, was first to break the silence.

"Alright troops!-"

Axel mumbled something about "soldier fetishes" to Zexion, and Zexion smiled in a thinking fashion. Sora saw the look and rolled his eyes "Eww gross!"

"-We will commence with Roxas Location Operation in t-minus five minutes! That's 3:00pm ladies!"

Zexion rolled his eyes in an uncharacteristic fashion, and latched on to Demyx's elbow. "Come on." He said quietly, and all of them filed out of Axel's apartment to hunt for Roxas. Though the moment was tense, Demyx and Sora soon had everyone laughing (Save for Zexion, who would at most Scowl-Smile) as they walked along the roads, searching together.

They found him right around eight o'clock, when dark had finally set itself in for the night. He was resting, filthy, in a dark alleyway. His eyes were bloodshot, as if he'd been awake this entire time, and his skin was a faint blue with cold. When Sora had seen him, he had rushed to his friend's side, the other's following behind slower, Axel practically stopping.

"Sora?" Roxas asked upon seeing his friend, totally in disbelief. "I thought I told you not to look for me, it's dangerous here."

There was more than a little concern for Sora in Roxas's voice but the small brunette paid it no heed.

"Don't worry, I'm not alone. Come on, we need to get you somewhere else."

At Sora's words Roxas turned to look at the group approaching him. He recognized Riku, along with two males he had never seen before. Who were these people? His eyes continued back, when a large shadow came into his view, and his eyes found the bewitching green one.

"You," Roxas said in a voice that rivaled Zexion's for poisonous frost.

Axel halted, feeling more pain from that one word then any other he had ever heard in his life.

Roxas turned towards Sora again. "You brought him here? Why? Why did you. . . He killed her Sora!"

Roxas's voice was now laced with an ache undefined. Sora unconsciously stroked his friend's blonde hair.

"Roxas, look, I don't think. . . I don't think he did it. You-You should listen to him."

Feeling like his world was crumbling around him, _again, _Roxas looked at all the faces that were now surrounding him and cringed. He realized that he had no choice in the matter anymore, and as much as he wanted to hate Sora, he felt an undeniable joy that he had found him, that he had cared enough to look at all.

"Fine, let me," his voice broke. "Let me talk to him."

Axel had to be pushed forward by the persistent Demyx who whispered an almost silent "good luck." The others moved away, giving them privacy, though close enough to step in if anything happened. All too soon he was staring down into harsh blue eyes, eyes that had labeled him a murderer.

"Roxas. . .I didn't murder her. I went there, to that park, to stop him, Lexaeus. The Organization had told me to kill her, that's how I knew about it, and that's why I left, but I couldn't just leave knowing someone was going to get murdered, so I followed them, and I tried to stop him. That's when you got there." Axel's voice had taken on a pleading pitch. "You have to believe me! I would never. . . I couldn't. . ." His throat closed up as he looked back to the blue eyes that were stark with pain. He wanted to do anything to get rid of that pain, but he had no idea what.

Roxas was swamped with too many emotions. Here was the one he had decided to hate since yesterday, saying that it wasn't him, that he hadn't killed her. But he had seen him! He had seen it with his own two eyes. But . . . he had only seen their backs. Is it possible that it really hadn't been him? Roxas shook his head; it was just all too much for him. He couldn't deny, however, the pull, the attraction, that was still there. The feelings of need, and of want, that Roxas still felt for Axel. He looked deep into those big green eyes and wanted to give him anything, but he could no longer put his heart on the line, it would be too painful. But neither could he walk away from this man that has ensnared his heart so well.

"Prove to me," Roxas said almost silently. "Prove to me that what you say is true."

Axel blanched. All he had was his words, how else could he prove to him?

"I-I can't, but Roxas, you have to believe me!" Axel, past all coherent thought, moved and reached down, his hands touching Roxas's shoulders, shaking him slightly, their faces inches apart. Axel's eyes were wet, and Roxas could feel the palpable sorrow that Axel had. Roxas could no longer put up this front. Where his mind refused to believe him, his heart did nothing but call out for him.

"Axel. . ." The word was harsh and filled with longing; it was all that the elder male needed. He enveloped Roxas in a tight hold, burying his face in the smaller male's shoulder. "Roxas, I'll do anything you need, anything you want, just please, don't look at me like that ever again, I-I couldn't bare it again."

Roxas felt his heart melt, and let his boundaries fall for at least a moment. There was no denying now that he felt something strong towards the fire-haired man. If these feelings were true for both of them, how could he do anything but believe him? He pulled back a little and, shyly, placed a chaste kiss on Axel's lips. Axel made no other move, just stared, wide and unblinking, until Roxas squirmed uncomfortably, blushing. Finally Axel smiled, and Roxas had no idea why he hadn't believed him in the first place. The ache in his chest was finally gone, and now all that he felt was . . . freezing!

"Uh . . . Axel? Can we . . . go? It's really fucking cold!" His teeth took the hint and started chattering, goose pimples rippling up over his skin. Axel nodded and stood. Roxas tried to stand too, but he hadn't moved in a day, and his muscles were stuck in place. He nearly toppled onto the floor again but Axel caught him.

Without protest Axel lifted the dirty male into his arms shoulders and towards the rest of the group. Sora looked worriedly at Roxas when they all became one large group again.

"Roxas, this is Demyx," Axel gestured toward Demyx, who gave him a soft smile. "And that's Zexion, his boyfriend." Zexion said nothing, and Roxas felt a bit uncomfortable.

"Is he okay? Why can't he walk?" Sora asked quickly.

Roxas's face turned the color of a tomato, and he was glad the darkness hid his blush.

"He's just stiff," Axel said quietly. Sora nodded, acceptingly, and everyone started back up again towards Axel's apartment, it being the closest without any parents to ask questions. Demyx and Zexion took up the rear, both relived for their best friend, hands intertwined, Riku stuck in the middle of the group, as Axel and Sora took up the front, Sora fluttering around Roxas, constantly asking if he was okay.

By the time they made it back to Axel's apartment, everyone was tired. It wasn't a short walk after all. Axel sat Roxas on his couch, and collapsed into one of his easy chairs. Demyx and Zexion occupied another, and Sora and Riku sat beside Roxas on the couch. Everyone just sat for a while, warming up and relaxing.

"So . . . now what are we going to do?" Riku asked suddenly.

Roxas sighed. "I still-I still need revenge for _her. _ I can't let this kind of stuff keep going on. I'm . . . sorry."

Axel shook his head, his heart clenching. "I'll go with you . . . but, don't you think we should know a bit more first? I mean, I know a little, like where the home base is . . . but not really enough."

Roxas looked pained, twiddling his thumbs. "I know some, the guy Lexaeus told me before I kicked his ass. He told me who belongs to them, and the different levels everyone belongs to. The hierarchy I guess you call it."

Sora's head shot up, his eyes going wide. "Lex-aeus?" he asked, stammering. "It. . . It couldn't be. . ."

Riku moved closer to Sora, wrapping his arms around him. "Are you okay? Sora?"

Sora's eyes had gone wide and he had grabbed Roxas by the shoulders and for the second time that night, Roxas had the pleasure of being shook.

"Are you sure it was Lexaeus??"

Roxas nodded, and Axel raised his eyebrows. "How do you know Lexaeus?"

Sora shuddered and moved deeper into the circle of Riku's arms. "I was out walking two or so years ago. I got really lost, and it was dark by then, so I was just following the stars." He blushed then, "Yeah, I know, really dorky right? Well whatever, but then these two guys were in front of me, and they were really big. I was even shorter then. One called the other Lexaeus and the other one was named something weird like Sticks or Saix or something. They had these two people, a guy and a girl, and one was beating the shit out of the guy while the other molested the girl. There was blood everywhere, I think the guy. . . I think he was already . . . dead. And they were just laughing the whole time. I was so scared I couldn't do anything. They never saw me, but, oh god there was so much blood, and then they . . . they . . . killed her!" Sora couldn't say anything more; he was too overcome, and buried his face in Riku's chest. Roxas put his hand on Sora's shoulder, reassuringly, and the others felt a little uncomfortable. They hadn't known Sora for very long, but the little brunette had wormed his way into their hearts as he did with everyone. When he slowly calmed down, and gave everyone a shy smile, they were all relieved.

"Well!" Said Demyx, ever cheerful. "I guess that settles it then! We're all going to go and kick some ass." He smiled at everyone. "But first I think that we should rest, so ladies! To bed!"

Axel rolled his eyes. "Oh, for a second there I thought this was my house."

Demyx had the grace to blush. "Uh . . . ha-ha . . . so Axy-poo, can we stay?"

Roxas felt an insane twinge of jealousy at the way Demyx was talking to Axel. But . . . wasn't Demyx with Zexion. Roxas shook his head and yawned, suddenly very tired. It made sense, seeing as he hadn't slept at all since the movies.

Axel was looking around, counting heads. "I've only got one guest room, and it's a little cluttered, but the couch pulls out, and the easy chairs recline all the way, so who ever wants to stay can."

Demyx and Zexion instantly took the guest room, saying that no one wanted to hear them going at it so they should be entitled to the walls. Once Sora had called his mom to tell him he was "spending the night at Riku's" the pair took the pull out sofa. Roxas looked a little bemused. He didn't really _want_ to fall asleep in one of the chairs, but what else could he do?

Then Axel was at his elbow, blushing a little as he gestured down the hall, and led him to it a little ways without thinking.

"You can sleep in my room." Axel said quietly.

Roxas blanched. "Uh. . . I. . . Eh. . ."

Axel realized what Roxas thought he was asking and backed up a step. "No! I mean, uh, no that's not what I was trying to say. I've got a sleeping bag I can throw on the floor. You've gone threw a lot, so you can take the bed if you want to."

Roxas had a dilemma. On one hand he had his masculine pride, and on the other hand he had a warm comfy bed. Pride. Bed. Needless to say, the bed won.

"Okay. . ." Roxas answered.

Axel couldn't help but lean forward, drawn to the small, beautiful blonde standing in front of him. He couldn't help but wrap his arms around him, pulling him close. Couldn't help but slant his lips over Roxas's, kissing him passionately. It only made it worse when Roxas tentatively reached up, wrapping his arms around Axel's shoulders, and kissed back. Pressing Roxas against the wall of the hallway that led to his room, moving his hands to his hips, rocking his own against Roxas's. Axel slipped his tongue into Roxas's gasping mouth, and the small boy shook, nipping and licking at Axel's own tongue, all boundaries forgotten. All that he cared about was the feelings of being held by someone who cared, and who he cared about. By the time they broke apart, both were breathing heavy. Axel blushed and opened the door to his bedroom, walking inside. He rummaged through a few draws before tossing a large t-shirt and an extra pair of pajama pants at Roxas. As Roxas moved to the bathroom to change, Axel laid out the sleeping bag on the floor, and sighed in exhaustion. But, remembering the kiss, he fell asleep with a smile on his face. The day had definitely changed for the better. Drastically.

When Roxas had re-entered the room, Axel was dead to the world. So Roxas had climbed into the bed which he was now lying. In. Axel's. Bed. Wearing a spare pair of Axel's Clothes. Yeah, that's right. Axel's. Clothes. He nuzzled his head into the pillow, which smelled deliciously like Axel, and closed his eyes, cuddling into the warm blankets, which also smelled like Axel. He allowed himself these luxuries as his mind flittered to sleep, listening to said red-head snore softly on the floor beside him, trying not to think of all the absolute _badness_ that lay ahead.

A/N: Weird place to end it, I know, but I stayed up all night to write this, and I really didn't know what else to say. Like I said in the first A/N This was just. . . totally writer's blocked. I'm sure I'll go back later and re-do this whole thing, but I'm just glad that this finally got written.

Um. . . please review, because I like reviews, they make writing easier. . So show some love! Or hate, I don't care, but write something. Please?

**Chapter Nine:**

**In Which Leads Are Followed**

More AkuRoku. Information on the Organization, and the gang begins their journey. And for god's sakes what ever happened to going to school?!?!


	9. In Which Leads Are Followed

**Secrets in Love**

By Zess

**Chapter 9/20**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KH (or the characters) FF (or the characters) so STFU you crazy lawsuit people.

**A/N:** Late. Sorry. I just. . . I don't know! Don't kill me! I just didn't have any. . . enthusiasm for this chapter? But now I do! And now it's written, and I actually like it a lot, even though it feels a little rushed in some parts. It's very much different then the past chapters because. . . well there are more characters, and I thought that with this particular bunch there would be insanity all the time, so that's how I wrote it. It's not my best chapter ever…so I apologize but I still hope everyone enjoys it.

** Edit: **This chapter was taken down and is now reposted almost completely the same as before. I just decided to say fuck it to this one. The next chapter turned out really freakin' awesome, so I wanted to just cut my loses and continue on. I'm sorry. /: But.. . forgive me??

* * *

**Chapter Nine-**

**In Which Leads Are Followed**

They walked into school in what can only be called a mob, and you could tell no one knew quite what was going on. Every student that comprised the mass majority must have been sending their group odd looks, and who could blame them? There was the sweet and bubbly Sora, which was not in itself odd, but he was walking hand in hand with his silver haired counter-part. There were most definitely a few murmurs of "homo" and "Eww, gross." But they had finally decided that enough was enough. What was the point in trying to hide it when they really didn't care what everyone else thought?

It helped quite a bit that there were two older males following the happy looking couple. Demyx, with his hair even grungier than usual, smiled manically at all of the gaping onlookers. Following shortly behind him was a quiet and fierce looking Zexion. Honestly, he was trying his best to look approachable and kind, but he only managed to come off with a slightly less devastating frown. The few people that had started forward menacingly towards Riku and Sora had stopped in their tracks upon spying the two college students.

Finally surrounded by his friends during a school time, Axel had done the complete one-eighty. He was much more animated then most of the student body had ever seen him, and this caused quite uproar as well. Many rumors were being spread like wildfire throughout the campus, but the group ignored it and traveled on.

Behind all of this was a very tired, very haggard looking Roxas.

"You guys, I didn't need you all to walk like this with me!"

It was true; he had never asked them to walk him to school like this. For some reason, all of his friends had decided that he needed protection. It didn't make very much sense to him, but since when had any of these people? After no one answered he tried again.

"Zexion, Demyx, you guys aren't even _in_ high school."

A grunt was his answer. He sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose. As much as he had grown to love this group, they could really be a pain in the-

"OW!"

And with an over-animated crash, he ran face first into Axel's back. The red-haired male looked down at him, both eyebrows raised. Roxas really hated it when Axel gave him that look; it made him feel like he was twelve years old.

"Hey, watch where you're going short stuff."

Roxas would have lunged for his taller counterpart, which may or may not have led to his satisfied ravishment, if he hadn't seen four pairs of eyes looking at him in a peculiar fashion. In his friend's shoes Roxas would grudgingly admit that he would have been looking at himself funny too. His face was bright red, perhaps from his embarrassment of being clumsy, his eyes were partially crossed, perhaps from thoughts of his above mentioned ravishment, and his mouth was hanging open, perhaps from running into the large red headed wall.

Roxas made a noise that sounded like "Mmrrhemr" and stepped past all of his ogling friends. Demyx just laughed and dragged poor Zexion along with him, who began to mumble about finding a boyfriend who wouldn't cause trouble. Sora and Riku followed the three chuckling, and Axel had no idea what had just happened.

They all stopped and communed in front of Axel's locker. Demyx grabbed Zexion by the lapels of his blazer, that is, if he had had lapels, or had been wearing a blazer. In reality, he had grabbed Zexion by the front of his black shirt, and pulled him towards him seductively.

"Oooh Zexy! It's just like the old days when you used to pin me up against the lockers and…"

"You know, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little," Said Riku.

Sora rolled his eyes. "Gross you guys, we could hear you going at it all night long."

Demyx just pouted, and Zexion raised an eyebrow at Riku. "Oh yeah, 'cause you guys don't fuck like bunnies."

Roxas leaned back against the ugly colored lockers, a small smile on his face which contradicted his whispered "therapy" over and over again. Axel, as always, was ignorant of all. Or perhaps he was just too busy staring at the small blonde to notice.

Demyx, now that his plans of seduction had been thwarted, stepped up onto his tip-toes to peer over Axel's shoulder.

"What's our first class, Axel babe?"

"Math."

Sora gave out a horrified gasp. "Oh shit! Math! I forgot to do that assignment that we were, uh, well, assigned."

Riku just gave a knowing look and pulled out an extra piece of scribbled on paper. "No you didn't, stupid, you just left it at your house."

Roxas laughed at the two, while Zexion pulled out a small black notebook. Roxas raised his eyebrows at that. "Are you planning on actually taking notes?"

Demyx swiveled his head around to look at Zexion and Roxas. "I keep telling him that school work is pointless, but he just won't listen to me."

"But, you don't even go to this school," Roxas tried to once again point out to Zexion, but the older male just gave him on of the dreaded malicious stares, and Roxas shut up. That was, until Axel took out his overly large calculus book and conked Zexion on the head, saying something along the lines of "over achievers never prosper"

So, the group merrily headed down the halls once again in their mob formation. By the time they reached class, Demyx had managed to trip over someone's backpack, Roxas had already forgotten where they were going, Sora and Riku had both lost there sense of direction, Zexion had _shouted_ "idiot midget!" at a passing by freshmen, and they all managed to be ten minutes late. You have to understand that this all would have been well and good if the class had been, say, on the other side of the campus. But it had only been at the other end of the hall from Axel's locker.

This however, phased no one but Roxas. Through out their "journey around the school!" as Demyx had dubbed it, Roxas had tried to point out that they were going in the wrong way, but they had all ignored him. He had ignored himself after a while, because really, he was having more fun then he had had in a long time. Everyone was skipping around, except Zexion of course, he never skipped, and having just a good time. But, now they would face the repercussions of their actions!

Or not. Axel thrust open the door, stating merrily that "We're here!" to the haggard looking teacher standing in front of the white board. To say nothing else, the group had flare. No one in the rest of the class said anything, until Demyx had entered in his own flamboyant way. When he and Zexion had finally entered completely, Demyx screeched in nothing but a girly fashion and pounced on their teacher crying "Squawlky!"

At the moment, Roxas was trying hard to melt into the ugly linoleum flooring, while Sora and Riku sat down near him in the back of the class. They couldn't sit next to him of course because that seat was being occupied by Axel. Axel looked very happy with himself as he managed to pull off the yawn arm over the shoulder gag successfully. Roxas was oblivious in his become-the-floor act. Demyx and Zexion were still crowded around their math teacher, and the rest of the student body was still speechless.

"Squawlky!" Demyx screeched again.

The teacher fumed. "Don't call me Squawlky."

Zexion chuckled. No one could ever say he didn't have a sense of humor when he stated softly, "Fine them, _**Mr.**_ Squawlky."

Roxas could tell the math instructor was about to implode with rage or explode into a giant mass killing spree. He looked over to Axel as a thought struck him.

"How do they know, uh, whatever his name is?"

"You mean Leon? We all know him, he's jus a year or two older then Zexion, they all used to go to class together."

Somehow Roxas had never noticed the young look of his math teacher, or how obviously un-hostile he was treating the Demyx glomp of doom. Not many people could remain stoic after encountering Demyx's glomp, that was for sure.

"Oh," was the only intelligent thing that Roxas could come up with.

Axel looked over at his new-found boyfriend? Is that right? Could he even call Roxas his boyfriend after what had happened? Or did Roxas just think of him as the end to his means? Nah. Axel knew better then to think like that. Roxas had been through too much to play games with peoples heads. Right?

"Roxas?" Axel asked, turning towards the blonde.

"Yeah?" Roxas asked, still staring at the trio surrounding Mr. Math Teacher's desk. Demyx was making weird animated gestures with his hands, and the math teacher almost smiled. Roxas was fascinated.

"Be my boyfriend?" Axel took a giant leap, wearing his heart on his sleeve, and got the biggest shock of his life.

"I thought we were boyfriends?" Roxas said in a bored tone, still not looking away from the front of the class scenes. All of the other students had managed to sneak out of the class by now, and Sora had drug Riku to the front to see what was going on with the trio. Roxas had an internal bet that the small group wouldn't finish their conversation before the end of the period. So enthralled was he, that he didn't notice the red head jump up on his desk.

"Hawt diggety, Roxas said he'd marry me!" Axel shouted, his overpowering voice echoing slightly through the classroom.

"Hooray!" Shouted Demyx, and ran to the back of the class, jumping up on the table and doing a sort of jig with Axel.

"Demyx get off the table-"

"Wait, Roxas and Axel are getting married-?"

"I could have sworn I was once a respectable teacher-"

"Roxas are you pregnant-?!"

Roxas just slammed his head repeatedly into the desk, careful not to get stepped on by the two dancing lunatics, muttering "why me Lord?" over and over.

And then suddenly everyone calmed down. One would think that Roxas would be used to this sort of abrupt mood change, but he just wasn't.

"We told Squawlky about what's going on." Said Demyx, cheerfully.

"What!?!" Roxas nearly shouted, and he was understandably shocked. It wasn't every day someone revealed your deepest darkest secrets, or at least not normally. His eyes glared daggers into Demyx's hide.

But Axel wrapped his arms reassuringly around his small, and new, BOYFRIEND! He was still elated by the fact that Roxas had actually said yes, that he had his very own blondie boy-toy. Score one for the Gipper!

"Don't worry," Axel said. "We can trust him."

"Yeah," said Sora. "Everyone knows you couldn't get Leon to say something even if you paid him."

Squall just grunted.

"Don't be mad at Demyx," said Zexion. "It was actually my idea. I thought perhaps that Squall could give us some information. He wasn't always in the teaching business after all."

Roxas knew he was outnumbered, and graciously bowed his head.

The bell rang, and no one knew what to do. Go on to the next boring class? Or stay here and chit-chat with friends? Needless to say, the chit-chatting won. All seven of the group, including Squall, sat around a small table in a sort of circular shape, Axel and Roxas hand in hand.

"I've never heard of them."

Everyone around him nodded, as if they understood what Leon had meant. Roxas however, didn't understand, and raised his eyebrows. Come on now, to speak you have to give a little more clarification.

"Uh. . .who?"

"The Organization."

Everyone was looking at Roxas as if to say "Well duh!" So sue him for not understanding cave-man talk. Jeeze. If anything else, he was a bit miffed. So he slumped back in his chair and crossed his arms. Wasn't this supposed to be his mission? Shouldn't he be the leader? But no, everyone was looking at Leon in a sort of adoration and it was clear that they all were looking to him for advice.

"What should we do then?" Asked Demyx, and that just went right along to prove Roxas's point. Why not just shove it in his face then!

"Ask Roxas," said the Leon. Roxas was beginning to understand that he said very little. Even so, this still put him on the spot. He really didn't have any ideas, had just felt put out because all of his friends had seemingly forgotten him. He didn't really know what to say as they all stared at him, waiting for an answer. He'd been acting kind of childish hadn't he?

"I don't know. If you know anything Leon, please tell me."

Roxas didn't look at Leon as he said this, but the humbling reply was still loud and clear in statement and sentiment. Leon mulled this over in his quick thinking mind a little bit, before answering.

"Tifa," Leon said simply.

Axel shot out of his chair again, he seemed to be doing that a lot, and slammed a fist into some kind of un-foreseen enemy. Or perhaps it was a victory dance? Roxas was too busy watching how the shirt rode up Axel's torso as he did so, exposing quite a bit of flat toned stomach.

"Stop drooling," mocked Sora.

"Yeah whatever, like you haven't told me a billion times how whenever Riku talks to you, you just zone out and stare at his mouth!" responded Roxas.

"Sora-!" that was Riku.

"Ooh a love triangle-!" that was Demyx.

"Babe, I don't think it's a love triangle when there is only two people involved-" poor Zexion.

"How would you know-?!" shouted Demyx, rounding on his lover.

"Because I can count. Tri means three runt-" Mr. Smarty pants pulls out the big guns.

"Tifa! Tifa! Tifa! TIFA! Of course! Tifa knows everything and everyone."

Roxas looked at Axel, his eyebrows raised. "Who's Tifa?"

Axel grinned sheepishly and ran his fingers through his hair. "My boss."

Demyx giggled, and Sora followed suit. Riku closed his eyes at the sound, looking in a state of complete and utter bliss. Or maybe he was just happy to be able to actually find a place to fall asleep unsuspectingly. Zexion too, had plugged his headphones into an unknown source, and had tuned out the world. Leon was looking utterly helpless and Roxas felt a bit bad about his former assumptions. He did seem like an alright guy, and his friends seemed to like him, so maybe he wasn't all bad right?

"So," he asked to both Leon and Axel. "Do you think she'd help us?"

"Who?" The pair said in sync.

Roxas was hit on the head with an anvil cartoon style. They could understand Leon when he talked like this but not him? Leon himself had his eyebrows raised in confusion. Well gee, that just takes the cake and runs it all the way home.

"Tifa."

"What about Tifa?" asked Riku, waking with a start. It was all clear though, because Sora hadn't noticed he had been sleeping.

"I don't know Roxas was asking something about Tifa," supplied Axel.

"Someone has a cheetah?" asked Sora in his normal excited bubbly way.

"No no, Tif-" Roxas tried to explain, but was instantly cut off.

"Oh! I knew a person who had a lion once!" Demyx exclaimed, latching himself into the conversation as well.

"It wasn't a lion, it was a big dog babe," said Zexion, forever pointing out Demyx's mistakes.

"It was a lion!"

"So, Roxas, how about you and me go rough it up in that there closet." Axel waggled his eyebrows at the poor bemused Roxas who was trying to figure out how the conversation had moved so far off topic.

"It wasn't a lion," stated Leon as he added in his two cents.

"How would you even know?" pouted Demyx in Leon's direction.

"Axel, keep it in your pants," Roxas said as he gave Axel the don't-touch-me look.

"RI-I-KU! I want a chee-tah!" shouted Sora, pulling on Riku's sleeves.

"It was my dog," said Leon bluntly.

"How about I keep it in your pants?" Axel was not put off in the slightest it seemed.

"Where would you keep it? And you're afraid of cats!" Riku was obviously not having any of Sora's idea.

"It was certainly not your dog, you hate animals!"

"Dem, it was his dog." Zexion was trying to be patient, and it was working, to an extent.

"It was my dog."

"I am not afraid of cats!" proclaimed Sora.

And on and on it went with poor Roxas was left once again to bang his head against the table. He had never sprouted so many "why me's" in his entire life. But, somewhere way deep down, he was glad. This madness was so refreshing. These new friends of his made life worth living in a way, as cheesy as it was. Just one more thing, he thought, just one more thing to do and then he could live his life like any other normal teenager. These people were willing to go through so much trouble just to help

"Thanks you guys," Roxas whispered suddenly, blushing.

In sync they all turned to look at him, appraisingly. The one time he didn't want them to quite understand what he was saying, they all did. Come to think of it, did that mean that they had some sort of selective hearing? That was all too possible for Roxas's rueful liking.

"Awwe, Roxy-!" said Demyx as he literally _flung _himself at the smaller blonde. Of course, they both ended up sprawled on the floor, and this just caused a mass freak out.

"ROXAS! I'll save you!" Claimed Axel and leapt into the fray, trying to wrestle Demyx off of his beloved.

"Demyx, get off the floor, you bruise easy," commanded Zexion, and reached down to try and pick Demyx up off the floor but only managed to get himself tripped onto the large group.

"DOG PILE!" Shouted Sora and drug poor Riku along with him as he belly flopped onto the four unsuspecting victims.

Roxas was laughing his head off, as he hadn't in a long time, because someone's fingers, he didn't know who, were tickling him mercilessly.

Since there was only one person who hadn't been pulled into the madness, it was only logical that he would be the next victim. Demyx crawled out of the dog-pile/wrestling match and under the table that Leon was sitting at.

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks as an undignified shriek echoed throughout the room.

"DEMYX I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

It couldn't have been that the shrieking had come from the composed and quiet Leon? But there he was, jumping up and down on the desk and looking ready to murder, as he had so claimed. And wait, was he wearing pink. . . toe socks?!

"My god Leon!" Axel sputtered

Demyx held up his prizes, two shiny black boots, previously worn and owned by Mr. Squawlky.

"Tada!"

"Demyx you should give those back!" Surprisingly, this lecture came from the small brunette. Maybe it was because, aside from Axel who was rolling on the floor laughing, everyone was staring at Leon and noticing how very red his face was turning.

"I'm going to kill you Dem." This time it was said much quieter, and Demyx must have finally realized just how deep the shit went that he was in.

"Uh oh!"

Leon leapt for the mohawked blonde, but Demyx was adept in the art of sidestepping, and our poor Squall ended up planted face first in the dirty linoleum. This just increased his anger, as it would anyone.

"Run Demyx!" shouted Roxas, trying to suppress laughter.

And Demyx took the advice, sprinting out the door with Leon hot on his heals. Zexion tried to grab Squall, seeing as when the cards were down he loved Demyx to death, but to no avail. The five-some that were left in the dust hurried out quickly in an eager crowd of not so innocent bystanders when they heard another screech and a lower pitched whimper. The screech was definitely Demyx, and they all assumed Leon had caught up with him, but what had happened to Leon? No one was expecting what they saw.

Axel's boss, Tifa, was standing a few yards away from Riku, Sora, and Zexion, with Demyx's ear (and his body attached to it) in one hand, and Leon held in the same fashion.

"Boys, don't you know you shouldn't run around the halls like this? And for goodness sakes Squall, where are you shoes?" asked Tifa in her merry way.

"Sorry Tifa," Demyx muttered, looking appropriately crestfallen at being caught.

Leon made a sort of grunting noise that may or may not have been a form of apology.

"_Tifa?" _Axel asked incredulously as he rounded up on the scene.

"Axel dear! I've been worried about you! Did you know you had work today?"

Now that she had Axel in her sights Tifa let the poor Leon and Demyx go, who retreated with everyone except for Roxas who took a step back. They all knew just what kind of a whirling dervish Tifa could turn into when she set her mind to it.

Axel himself was looking for someone to hide behind, but everyone had already escaped. Damn, he was in for it now.

"So you're Tifa?" asked Roxas, as he stepping in front of Axel, effectively cutting off the massacre that might have been.

"And what of it dear?"

"I need your help." Roxas said quietly, and desperately. He didn't know how he was going to carry out his plan without some sort of information. If this Tifa person decided not to help them, how would they be able to accomplish anything?

Tifa could kick some serious ass when she wanted to, but there was such absolute pleading and sadness on the boys face that she couldn't keep up her normal hot stuff routine. Axel, also seemed to notice the desolation in that one softly said statement because he wrapped his arms around Roxas's shoulders, kissing the small blonde lightly on the temple.

"Stop worrying Roxas, we're all here for you."

The other males seemed to break free of their stupor and all came to stand around Roxas, giving soft reassuring touches, or supportive smiles.

"Yeah Roxas-"

"You know we wont let you down-"

"Come on dude, who could take us on-?"

Roxas laughed, and returned all the hugs and for the second time today he said, "Thanks guys!"

He didn't need anyone else, he didn't need any information from anybody. He had people that cared, and had people that cared about him, that was all he would ever need. Somehow, they would be able to find a way. He tilted his head back against the solid chest he was leaned against and met a pair of deep green eyes. Yes, everything was alright now. He didn't need anyone but Axel, no arms but the ones casually wrapped around him. This was where he was meant to be, and together they could definitely accomplish anything.

Axel felt a fierce fluttering inside his chest as he looked down into expressive eyes that at one point had been so cold. Now they glowed a brilliant blue that warmed him to his brilliant core. Was it bad that he was standing here and growing hard in front of all of his friends just from looking at someone's eyes? Well, since that someone just so happened to be Roxas, he didn't think so.

"Rox-" but he was cut off.

"I'll help you."

Everyone stared blankly at Tifa, and Roxas was shocked to say the least. From the non existent information that everyone had given him, his imagination had come up with an evil Tifa that liked to eat people's hearts for breakfast, or something. But this wasn't the truth, or at least from what he could tell. He wanted to ask why she was helping, or if she really wanted to, and so many other questions, but now just didn't seem like the time.

"Thank you." He replied to Tifa.

She nodded her head graciously and then smiled in a warm motherly way.

"We should start soon, Frog Zombie, tomorrow, be there."

Everyone nodded, because Tifa wasn't someone you said no to, plus it seemed like she had a plan. When she started to walk away Leon called out to her, and the pair moved out of hearing range, talking in quiet whispers. No one said anything for a moment, and then Sora's stomach made a huge growling sound.

"Holy shit Sora, was that your stomach or some rampant beast?" Asked Demyx, incredulous.

Sora grinned sheepishly and raked a few fingers through his hair. "I'm just a little hungry."

"A little?" Axel whispered to Roxas, and Roxas sniggered.

"Hey, why don't we get some food?" Offered Zexion, and after a moment of thought, everyone concurred. Food definitely sounded like a good plan. As they all began off Roxas grabbed Axel's arm before he could walk away.

"You okay?" Axel asked, a little worried at the severe expression on Roxas's face.

"Mmhmm," Roxas murmured softly. "But, Axel?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you mean it? Do you really want to be my boyfriend?"

Axel didn't even have to think about it. "Of course!"

"Promise?" Roxas was scared enough to worry his bottom lip between his teeth, something that Axel found endearing.

"Promise promise," he replied and held out his pinkie finger.

Roxas grinned a smile brighter then the sun and gripped his own finger around Axel's. And they followed their friends to an unknown food source in that same arrangement, their pinkies intertwined.

* * *

A/N: Kind of a weird ending, but I just didn't know what to do with it. Blah. The next chapter will be much awesome-r I promise.

Please read and review!

**Next Chapter:**

**In Which Warmth Is Shared**

The team finds The Organization, and someone(s) gets trapped. Will the rest be able to save him/her in time? Find out soon!


	10. In Which Warmth Is Shared

**Secrets in Love**

By Zess

**Chapter 10/20**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KH (or the characters) FF (or the characters) .

**A/N: In advance, this is the EDITED version of Chapter 10. In the beginning it was all kinds of sexy/smutty but I got a little carried away and if I posted it on here FFnet would definitely skin me alive so again for being a little too mature, this is the EDITED version. If you would like to read it in the UNEDITED version, pm me and I will email it to you.**

I know I said that chapters 10-14 would all be released together, but chapter 13 is giving me much trouble and Chapter 10 was just laying around so I thought that I'd post it for you guys, since its been over a month I think since I've updated this one. (GOMEN!) Thank you all for having so much patience with me and sticking around. You all rock very hard core socks.

Now, Stfu and read it.

* * *

**Chapter Ten-  
In Which Warmth Is Shared**

"Riku!" Sora chirped loudly and everyone ducked and covered under the deco styled booth at Scoops. You see, unfortunately for everyone else with an appetite, Sora had been granted a large extra chocolate, chocolate chip ice cream with a chocolate cone. In short this meant that Sora's face fingers and lap, the table, Riku's hair, and the floor were all covered in a dark sticky substance.

"Dude, if one could eat grenades he could be like our own personal rocket launcher," Demyx said in awe as a projectile cone piece hit Zexion square in the forehead.

"Yeah, lovely." Zexion muttered, rubbing the chocolate off of his forehead in disgust.

"Ri-iku!" Sora spouted again and Roxas had to quickly cover his strawberry milkshake to avoid bits and pieces of chocolate ice cream from getting into it.

"For God's sake Riku answer him!" Axel groaned from behind his Shield-of-Roxas and nudged the staring Riku with his elbow.

In all truth Riku had been oblivious to all of the commotion and flying debris. He had been enamored with a small drop of chocolate currently making its way slowly down from Sora's lips. He shook his head to clear his scattered mind and looked over at the red head currently jabbing him in the side, and then at the brunette pouting prettily at him.

"What?"

"Can I get another one puh-leease?"

Riku thought about his quickly declining budget and was about to say no when he was barraged by the ultimate pouting face and sighed dejectedly. "Okay." He said.

Roxas sighed, and scooted further from Sora and deeper into Axel's embrace, who was quite pleased with himself for having snared a delicious fish.

And so it continued, the group of friends continuously picking on each other and Sora hurtling ice cream at everyone. It was an unsaid taboo that they would not talk about "the mission." They were trying to enjoy themselves before all hell broke loose. It was a while later, after everyone had been hit by eaten debris at least once, and Sora had fallen asleep face first on the table, that the group decided to head home. It was about this time that they all ran headfirst into a brick wall.

"Hey guys, it's getting kind of late, shouldn't we head home?"

There was a resounding agreement and everyone rose sluggishly out of their chairs. Riku carefully lifted the still slumbering Sora into his arms.

"Uh, where are you all going?" Axel asked as the party began trekking out the door.

"To your place."

Axel groaned, but it wasn't out of surprise, and most of it was false. In truth, he didn't mind everyone being so close to him. He didn't really like the fact that Roxas had chosen to sleep on his bed alone, and not with him, especially after what had happened between them recently. Didn't he care about him enough? What more did he have to do to gain Roxas's approval, trust, and love?

As much as Axel was elated to have Roxas as his own he felt as if Roxas wasn't really his, and deep down in his heart he was scared. Scared because Roxas had such passion about the whole revenge thing. And people couldn't just randomly need revenge with as much need as Roxas did. Axel was scared from the bottom of his heart that Roxas was still deeply in love with Namine, and he was just a short second to the girl who was gone.

"Uh. . .guys?"

The soft whispered voice dragged Axel out of his depressing thoughts. Well, the thought were still there, but they were now on the back burner.

"Roxas?" Zexion inquired, at the uncomfortable look on Roxas's face.

In reality, he was bright red and twiddling his thumbs, shifting from side to side. "Well,uh. . ."

"Just say it runt." Axel's voice was gruffer than usual because of his sad thoughts, and Roxas looked at him strangely.

"Well. . . My house is closer, and I have enough rooms for everyone so. . ."

"Great! Let's go!" And Demyx took off tearing around the corner at full speed. Riku just shook his head and sighed.

"Does he know where he's going?" Riku asked.

"No," Zexion replied with a wave of his hand. "But he'll be back."

And sure enough, there was the blonde mohawked boy, running at the same speed he had left. He screeched to a halt, if one can screech to a halt in sneakers, in front of the group looking sheepish.

"Uh, where's your house Roxas?"

They all burst out laughing and Roxas grabbed Demyx's hand, pulling him in the right direction in an unusual burst of happiness and friendliness. But, instead of the joy that one would feel in seeing an important person begin to disregard their emotional barriers, Axel felt only jealousy. From the beginning things had not gone as planned between him and Roxas, and now they were just getting worse.

As they walked home, poor Axel's thoughts just got more and more irrational, and his fear mixed itself enough to turn into a kind of hopeless rage.

* * *

**Axel's POV**

I walked along behind the two short blondes that were currently leading the way and felt. . . sick. I felt like my insides were about to twist themselves until they burst. I really didn't like the feeling at all, and who would? And I don't think it was just jealousy. It was a sort of hopelessness that I had finally made everything right with Roxas to have it all crumble around my feet again. Two steps forward and eight hundred steps back or so the saying goes. I didn't really understand all these feelings, but that didn't stop me from acting on them. Riku and Zexion both tried to have a sort of conversation with me and I just glared daggers into the back jogging happily up ahead, completely ignoring them.

It just. . . I'm trying my best not to sound like I am whining but still, it's just not fair. Sure, Roxas agreed to be my boyfriend, and he looks happy enough to be with me but save that one kiss last night there really hasn't been anything else. I want him to like me, more then anything, and it just seems like it's never going to happen.

We made it to his front porch and I walked in last, shutting the door behind me. Everyone went on the grand tour of the place, which was still as empty as ever, and was having a great time, but I could find no joy in it at all. There was nothing good going on here. Didn't they feel this tense and hopeless feeling that I was? This tightness in my chest that was fueled by frustration and rage and just an overall sad feeling. As I met Roxas's eyes across the room and he looked away I nearly started to cry. I wanted things to be better, I wanted them to be right and I wanted everything to just turn back to the way they had been before all of this had gone wrong. Back when we were just two kids at school and nothing more. Back when I was sitting next to him in class and teasing him until he would try and kill me. I wanted the Roxas that I had fallen in love with back.

I tried to meet his gaze again and this time he held my own stare until Sora called his attention away. I wanted things to be good between us so bad, but I was no fool. I wasn't going to be used if that's what all Roxas was doing, but I had so much hope that I was not going to give in to hasty conclusions. I would ask Roxas if he truly wanted to be with me or not, and if he didn't. . . well then I would disappear, because there was no way I would be able to help him truly if he rejected me after all of this.

I really hope everything turns out okay.

* * *

**Sora's POV**

The group of us sat in the large room that Roxas had dubbed to be his living room on upturned empty boxes and crates. It was so air was tense that it would have been easy to repeatedly stab it with a spork whose tines had been removed. Yeah, it was that bad, and it was all ebbing from Roxas and Axel. I didn't really understand it to be honest. I mean, at Scoops I thought everyone was getting along well, and at school Roxas had finally agreed to be Axel's boyfriend. That was still a good thing right? Well, I hoped it was still a good thing, otherwise Riku and I were going to have a lot of trouble again.

But hey, maybe that was it. Perhaps, were they going through the same tentative stages that Riku and I had gone through not very long ago? Were they feeling that same uneasy feeling that we had, that ridiculous emotion of not knowing? Maybe, maybe they just needed that small push in the right direction that Riku and I hadn't had.

I shuddered at the memory. Sure, it had all ended better then perfection but those grueling moments of thinking that I would lose Riku were the worst moment in my life. I would sell my soul to Satan rather then live through those moments another time. Then again, Satan is supposed to do the worst things to a person, and since that would be the worst thing, perhaps that's not quite the best idea I've ever had huh?

Oh well, I'm getting sidetracked.

"Hey! How about we all play cards?" Demyx suggested loudly, looking a little deflated even through his wide smile. I guess it was because Demyx had the same childish side that everyone said that I do that I could understand what he was trying to do. Zexion seemed to notice too and sighed, softly rubbing Demyx's leg trying to sooth him. Was there really anything we could do? Maybe. . .

I looked up to see Axel and Roxas's eyes clash and then Roxas looked away, looking sick. Even though Demyx was just trying to make things better I didn't think a game of cards was going to solve the problems of these two. The best thing, well, the best thing was for them to talk it out with each other.

And I'd be damned if I wouldn't try and help them get to that point. Oh wait, I said being damned would be bad huh? Hm. . . Perhaps then. . . I'd be switched! My grandpa said that all the time, I think it means the same thing.

So, I raised my arms over my head in the most dramatic way I could think of, and yawned loudly. Riku looked over at me as I leaned against him, my eyes heavy.

"What's wrong brownie?" Riku said softly, running his fingers through my hair in the way that I loved so much.

"I'm t-i-red."

Demyx was about to say something, but Zexion silenced him with a gentle nudge, gesturing lightly in my direction. I don't know if Demyx really got the hint, but at least Zexion had.

"Why don't we all go to bed?" I offered, trying to sound as sleepy as I possibly could. It was quite tough, seeing as I was wide awake.

"No wait I don't think-" but Axel was cut off by a resounding yes from all of the other guests. Roxas still had yet to say anything, and I was starting to really worry. Would this be the best thing? After everything, I didn't want to hurt my new best friend. No, this was not the time to be worrying about our plan of action. What Axel and Roxas needed really _had_ to be talking to each other. Even if. . . even if things didn't go right, at least then they'd know for sure.

Demyx and Zexion had stood along with Riku and I. Axel was still sitting on one of the up turned boxes looking helpless. For the first time in a while Roxas shook off his daze and looked up at the four of us that were standing through his blonde bangs.

"I'll show you guys to some rooms-" He said as he started to rise from his own upturned box, but I pushed him back down.

"That wont be necessary right guys?" I looked around at everyone else.

"Right!" Demyx said and grabbed Zexion's hand, dragging him into the nearest room.

Riku and I made an equally hasty retreat, heading for the stairs as there were no other rooms downstairs. When we were out of range, and at the top of the landing, I looked over at Riku a little afraid for my new friends.

"Do you think…?"

He silenced me with a soft sweet kiss. "Don't worry brownie, they'll be alright, once they talk it out with each other."

"I sure hope so."

* * *

**Axel's POV**

It was hell, just, hell. He wouldn't even meet my gaze. And of course by him I mean Roxas. And with each passing moment my temper just rose and rose. What the hell was going on here? How could he act this way to me now, after everything that we had gone through, after all that had passed between us. Perhaps I was being a bit dramatic but I think a little drama was appropriate for the situation. Hadn't we kissed? Didn't he say before that he wanted to be my boyfriend? I may not look it but I am really a serious guy when it comes to relationships. And on top of that, I didn't want him to be just using me. I wanted Roxas to love me, because. . . I loved him too.

"Do you, hate me Axel?"

I looked up quickly to find bright blue eyes staring deep into my own, the first time he had looked at me since Scoops. I was shocked to find tears glistening in those blue pools filled with sadness. Was he about to cry? I couldn't help but move to crouch in front of him, taking his two hands into my own and trying to look as soothing as I possibly could.

"Of course I don't hate you, what gave you that idea?"

"Well, you seemed so angry at me." He didn't sniffle, or wheeze, or anything like that, just looked at me as tears fell down his face.

I don't know why, but with each of those tears, my anger just got worse. He hadn't said anything to me since Scoops, had agreed to be my boyfriend only after one kiss, and had never really said anything to make me believe that he loved me, or even liked. And I knew that he still had some secrets that he was keeping from me, I could tell by the look in his eyes. All that I really knew was that he had been looking for me from the beginning only because of my connections to The Organization. Was it so far fetched to believe that that was the only real reason that he was still here with me?

I turned away from him and crossed my arms over my chest. "Well, maybe I am a bit pissed off."

I heard a gasp from behind me and the scraping of a box against wood paneling. Suddenly two skinny arms were wrapped around my middle, and his face was buried into my shoulder blades.

"Why? What did I do to make you so angry?" Whispered Roxas into my shirt.

It was that pathetic hitch in his voice that finally sent me over the edge. For that I have known Roxas only a short amount of time, I knew that he was not pathetic and weak. Things would not make him cry so easily. I was right, it had been all just a game to him.

"Don't even pretend with me Roxas, I know you're just faking. You don't give a damn about me!" I pushed him away and began for the front door.

* * *

**Roxas's POV**

"Don't even pretend with me Roxas, I know you're just faking. You don't give a damn about me!" I pushed him away and began for the front door.

As he walked away, in that moment, in those seconds, more emotions rampaged through my body then I would have ever felt possible. More thoughts then I even knew existed crashed around inside my head. Why does this always happen to me? Why is it that the moment that I find something happy, something terrible has to happen? I wanted to go back to earlier at school. I wanted to look him in the eyes and tell him that I wanted to be his and only his. I wanted him to run his fingers against my face in that soothing way that only he knew calmed me. I wanted. . .

I was shocked, at myself and at him. It seemed hat there were too many times recently that I had given in to the need to cry. And why was I crying anyways? The only real answer I could come up with was because of Axel. Because I had never thought that I could feel this way for someone again.

I was guilty, because I had sworn to Namine to love her with all of my heart, and that I would never forget her. Was it right for me? Was it okay for me to be feeling so happy, to have so much joy while she was laying somewhere rotting and dead? Was I betraying her memory?

I was scared, scared that I would once again lose the people that I had come to love. Scared that he would just walk away from me. Scared that tomorrow, everything would go wrong and the people who were putting their lives on the line for me would wind up dead, and I'd have to bury more people that were important to me.

But above anything else, I was pissed. I was so angry at Axel for what he said, for making me doubt myself. I didn't want to admit my feelings for him, just wanted to distance myself from him. But whenever I tried to back away, to keep my heart locked away he pushed, and pushed. Why did he always have to push my buttons? And why didn't he believe me? I was so mad at him for not believing in me. If he didn't believe in me, then there was no one left. I hated admitting that I had been leaning on Axel's strength more then I could ever say.

As all of these emotions mixed into a festering boil I grabbed his arm as he walked away from me, and tugged hard. "What the hell is your problem?" I shouted. "Why does everything have to always be like this?"

He pushed me away from him again, and I staggered back a few paces, my head knocking smartly against the closest wall. He advanced on me and planted his two hands on either side of my head. As he leaned down, I could see the fire in his eyes, and realized for the first time just how angry he was. But why? What had I done to set him off so? I just didn't understand.

"Why Axel, why-"

"I'll tell you why! It's because every time I find you staring off into space I wonder if you're thinking about _her_. Because you're so stuck on this revenge thing that I wonder how you could ever find room in your heart for any one else. It's because I'm so fucking sick of being second to some dead girls memory. She may have been the best in the whole world but don't you get it Rox? She's _dead_, and no matter what you do, she isn't ever coming back."

It felt like a knife had been thrust deep into my heart and was currently cutting its way through my spine. I raised my hand and slapped him hard but the blow didn't even phase him. "How…how dare you say things like that about her? You didn't even know her! She was kind and beautiful and-"

"See! Her her her! I don't give a damn about her Roxas! Don't you understand? I'm. . . Damn it Roxas I'm in love with you! And. . . And I don't want to be used, not by you."

* * *

**Third Person POV**

There was an uncomfortable silence and Axel moved away, turning around and running his fingers through his hair with a sigh. This was not how he had wanted things to turn out between them. In fact, he had no idea how things had gotten so out of control. Roxas was in complete and totally shock, his heart beating one hundred beats per second. Could this really be happening?

"You. . . love me?" He asked softly, the disbelief filling his voice.

Axel turned around to meet Roxas's eyes, a sheepish grin on his face, though his eyes were lifeless. "Yeah. . .Funny isn't it? Who'd have ever thought that I'd fall for somebody like you."

To Roxas, that was just another slap in the face. "Somebody like me? What the hell does that mean?"

This was definitely, not going the way that Axel had planned. In fact until just now, he had never fully realized the depths of his feelings for Roxas. But now, that he had actually said the words, he knew they were the most honest thing that he had ever said in his whole life. He did love Roxas, more than anything.

"That didn't turn out right. Sorry. . . It's just, I never really thought I'd fall in love at all. And you're. . . You're just great Rox." Axel sighed and ran his hands through his hair again, looking down at the floor, all of the fight completely dissipated from him. "I'm sorry. . . I'm sorry that I got so out of control. But, I've never felt this way about anyone, and sometimes it feels like you're just well. . . using me for the memory of the person you really love. . ." He shook his head and turned towards the door again. "Hey, I'm going to go home, I don't think I can stay here."

But when he had reached the door once more, and his hand clutched the door knob, Axel was stopped in his tracks.

"I never thought I could feel this way again either. . ." Whispered Roxas. "Namine. .. Namine was the only person that ever was there for me. She taught me how to live, and how to love, and when she was gone. . . I just. . . I sort of died inside. I locked all of my emotions away, and I was hell bent on revenge because. . . well because it was the only thing that I knew how to do. I never thought. . . I never thought that I could care for someone so much. I never thought that I'd find someone like you. . . Axel, I don't know if I can even love anyone anymore but I know. . . I know that if you walked out that door that I would die a little more inside because. . . Well. . . You're everything to me-"

Half way through Roxas's softly spoken confession Axel had turned to stare at him incredulously. Was this really happening? But with each word that left Roxas's lips, Axel felt his heart swell just a little bit more, and before it could burst he walked swiftly to the smaller blonde and pressed his lips to Roxas's, effectively cutting him off. The tears that wee running from Axel's eyes shocked Roxas for a moment before he melted into Axel's amazing kisses.

Axel gathered Roxas into his arms and tilted his head, probing at Roxas's mouth with the tip of his tongue. When Roxas moaned and opened his mouth, allowing Axel access, Axel felt himself grow hard and moaned softly. Roxas responded with a whimper of his own and he tugged at Axel's shirt, gathering it in his hands. When he had bunched it up enough Roxas began to run his fingers delicately against Axel's flat stomach, making Axel shudder. One to give as good as he got, Axel raised Roxas higher into his arms to cradle him against his chest and mounted the stairs, never moving his mouth from Roxas's own.

When they reached the top landing Axel gently kicked Roxas's door open and moved them both inside. Laying Roxas down on the bed he knelt over the small blonde and pulled his lips away to cradle Roxas's face in his hands.

"Roxas. . .Let me love you."

Roxas didn't completely understand, but he felt the thirst in his body that only Axel could quench, and knew that he could trust Axel completely. Roxas knew that he wanted this as much as Axel did.

"Axel, please. . . I need you."

That was all that the red head needed as encouragement and as he moved above his new found lover, he began to prove without words the purity and depth of his love for Roxas.

The couple awoke in each other's arms, the sweat still clinging to their bodies, before the dawn had even crested the hills. Axel stretched underneath Roxas's body that was curled contentedly in a small ball on top of him.

"Wake up love," Axel whispered quietly, pressing a soft kiss to Roxas's temple as the blonde began to stir.

"Mmm, five more minutes," Roxas muttered and rolled off of Axel, flinging a pillow over his eyes.

Axel smiled, and slowly and quietly scooted off of the side of the bed, picking up his clothes as he went and slipping on his jeans. Opening the door he scouted left and right before tip toeing across the hall into the bathroom. Since his and Roxas's little. . . adventures in love, he had yet to take a shower and there were a few. . . substances that really shouldn't be left alone. He slipped out of his pants again after turning on the warm water and stepped into the pulsating spray. As he began to lather shampoo into his hair, and after getting all of the dirty thoughts of taking and shower with Roxas, Axel's mind began to wander.

Last night had been the best night in his life. Axel no longer held any doubts about how Roxas felt about him, their passionate embraces and the closeness that they had shared was proof enough to him that Roxas really did love him, even if he had yet to admit it. What worried him, however, was the fact that today was the day. Today was the day that they were to go to Frog Zombie and meet Tifa and Leon, and then head to the base of The Organization. He shuddered just at the memories of the place. Would their rag tag bunch really be able to stand up against a group of trained fighters and assassins? Axel hoped beyond all hope tat Roxas would just wake up today and abandon this foolish quest for vengeance and. . . And that the two of them could continue like a normal couple, a pair not caught up in disaster and death.

"Roxas. . ."

Axel stepped out of the shower, and dressed once more.

* * *

It was just before six in the morning, and everyone had assembled around Roxas's kitchen table, quietly eating the cold breakfast that he had prepared for them, and by prepared I mean handing out bowls and spoons and passing around the milk for everyone's cereal. Though everyone was glad to see that Roxas and Axel were back together and perhaps even better then before, no one really said anything. The silence was charged and it was a known fact that everyone was thinking about what awaited them if they left Roxas's house.

Finally Sora could stand it no longer. "Roxas. . . Are you sure that you want to do this still?"

All eyes were on Roxas and he shifted under the scrutiny. "Well. . ."

Riku wrapped his arm around Sora's shoulders, and tried his best to look soothing. "Roxas. . . Sora and I were talking last night and, don't you think that Namine would be happier knowing that you're happy and living instead of on some crusade for her sake?"

Everyone stopped eating for a moment to hear what Roxas's rely would be, and Axel's heart was pounding so loud that he was sure it was about to break through his chest. Roxas looked from face to face of everyone who was anxiously awaiting his answer and smiled softly.

"Thank you you guys, for being here for me, and really worrying about me. But, I don't think you have to worry anymore." Roxas reached across the table to link his fingers with Axel's, his cheeks red. "I don't think. . . I think you're right Riku, Namine would be much happier if I was happy, not on some hell bent revenge frenzy. But, that doesn't mean I don't still have to do this, if not for her sake, then for mine. If I don't do this, I'll never be able to move on with my life."

There was more resounding silence as everyone just stared at the blushing Roxas.

"I need to do this for myself," He repeated. "But, I understand if you guys don't want to risk your lives for something like this."

Demyx chuckled, and flung his empty bowl into the sink. Everyone was expecting him to say something, and were therefore surprised when Zexion cleared his throat softly. "That's ridiculous. We're all in this for you Roxas, we'll always be here." With everyone looking at him in a sort of "aww" sense, and his cheeks decidedly pink, Zexion cleared his throat again and looked away. "Besides, we can't just let a group like this continue on."

Coming to his boyfriends rescue Demyx smiled and stood, cracking his back and stretching. "Well, everyone? Shall we then?"

They all nodded and, after placing their dishes in the sink, single filed out the door. Roxas locked the almost empty house behind him and tried not to think that he may not ever be coming back to see this wonderful place again.

* * *

". . . and that, gentlemen, is the plan," stated Tifa in her normal merry way.

The group of them, including Leon and Tifa, sat cluttered in the back office of Frog Zombie among all of the boxes of goods and accessories. They had been here for less then twenty minutes listening to Tifa's plan, and Roxas was incredulous.

"So, the master plan is, we're going to do our best to sneak in, and take the main guy hostage and if we don't succeed in that then we're all fish bait?"

"Yep!" Tifa replied with a cat-who-caught-the-canary smile.

"I think it'll work," Sora stated, nodding.

"Mmhmm-"

"Brilliant-"

"I rather like the butt kicking idea-"

Everyone around him was nodding in agreement and Roxas felt like blowing his top. There was no way such a hastily construed plan could work, not against a professional group of killers and fighters!

A reassuring squeeze on his shoulder made him look to his side to meet Axel's cat green eyes. The warmth in them alone was enough to quell even his deepest fears.

"Everything will work out, believe in us Roxas." Axel whispered to him. And, looking around at everyone who was there because they wanted to help him, Roxas could do nothing other than believe in them. These had to be the greatest people that he could have ever known.

"Alright, let's do this."

"YEAH!"

* * *

The group of eight stood outside two monstrous gates surrounded by monstrous walls in awe. The mansion, or base of the Organization, that they were about to try and infiltrate was, in short, huge.

"Let's go." The command from Leon was clipped, quiet, and short. They had all agreed that since they were oldest and had the most experience in this sort of thing that Leon and Tifa would be the leaders to this little escapade.

With hearts pounding and veins humming with adrenaline everyone nodded and moved behind a line of trees that concealed their presence well. Demyx and Zexion had already scouted the perimeter and found thirty-six infrared sensors covering the grounds inside the giant walls surrounding the mansion. On top of that, there were four security camera's posted, one on each corner of the surrounding wall. Their best bet to get over the wall in secrecy and without alerting the infrared alarm systems was to top the wall from behind the cover of the line of trees.

"I'll go first, then the rest of you need to follow. Try and keep your hands and feet to the same places that I put them." Tifa whispered her commands to the group and everyone was silent as she easily scaled the wall and dropped to the other side. There were a few breathless moments while they waited to see if her landing set off any of the ground's alarms but it was quiet. After a few more minutes they heard the knocking signal through the wall and Leon followed where Tifa had first gone. Another knock and Zexion was up and over the wall. Soon, it was only Riku and Sora left.

When Sora approached the wall, Riku grabbed his hands and kissed the brunette softly. "I love you." He whispered to Sora, and Sora smiled. "Wish me luck?"

"You won't need it."

The knocking signal came through and, with one last smile, Sora began to climb the huge wall. He made it to the top and grinned down at Riku, waving his hand softly. It looked as if he was about to say something when his eyes got wide and his arms wind milled in the air; he had lost his balance. Riku had to bite down hard on his lip to keep from crying out as he saw Sora fall over the side of the wall.

The sirens blazing was almost instantaneous to Sora's hitting the ground on the other side.

"Everyone we have to get back over the wall, come on hurry!" Leon shouted as he grabbed Demyx and Roxas, the two slowest climbers, and flung them half way up the wall before following himself. Axel and Tifa scrambled up the wall after them as they began to hear shouts and more alarm cries going off along with a hoard of approaching footsteps.

"Hurry Zexion go!" Sora shouted as the silver haired teen stared at Sora in confusion.

"SORA!" The shouting over the wall was Riku's, frantic and out of control. "SORA! What's happening!? Sora?! SORA!"

"But. . ." Zexion was torn. There was no way that the two of them were going to be able to make it over the wall in time, judging by the distance of the sound of footsteps.

"I'll buy you some time, you go, and get everyone out of here. Please, take care of Riku, and Roxas. If you don't go now we'll never be able to make it out! Besides, I'm the one that tripped the alarm anyways."

"SORA?!?"

Zexion hesitated for a moment more but Sora sent him one of his wide smiles. "Go, I'll be okay. But, can you do me one favor? Can you. . ."

The silver haired male understood that there was no arguing with the small brunette now. He listened to Sora's request and then nodded curtly and clamored over the wall, just as a group of guards rounded upon the scene.

He dropped to the ground on the other side. Roxas, Axel, Tifa, and Leon were already retreating into the surrounding brush. Demyx looked at him strangely as he righted himself and Riku rounded on him, grabbing Zexion by the shirt and shaking him quickly. "Where's Sora!?"

"He's staying behind, said he's buying us some time. . ."

"WHAT?!?! We can't just leave him there, they'll kill him! I'm going after him. Sora just wait I'm coming for you! SOR-"

He was cut off as Zexion slammed his fist to the back of Riku's neck, quickly rendering him unconscious. Slinging the younger silver haired male over his shoulder he grabbed Demyx by the hand and began running after the rest of the group.

"Zex?! Riku's right, we can't just leave him there!"

Zexion looked into Demyx's eyes as the pair of them ran and he gasped, out of breath from having to carry such a heavy load and run at the same time. He had never been the most athletic anyways. "I know, but if we don't go now they're wont be anyone left to go back and save him!"

"But Zex. . ."

"He made me promise Dem! Before I left him he said, 'Please, if you can't do anything else make sure that Riku's safe, and let him know that, no matter what happens, I loved him more then I have ever loved anything.'"

"Sora. . ."

* * *

A/N: Please read and review. Thanks. 


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